10/02/2015: Safe & responsible feed with GMP+ certification

by Sandra de Bruin, project coordinator of GMP+ International

First published in International Aquafeed, January 2015

All over the world consumers are setting strict requirements on the safety and quality of their food. In order to gain and retain their confidence, suppliers of meat, dairy products and eggs are demanding that feed companies create a perfect basis for this.

GMP+ International manages the unique GMP+ Feed Certification scheme in a continuous process of innovation to ensure the safety of feed. This makes the GMP+ Feed Certification scheme a well accepted certification scheme, and it is in many countries and markets even a license to sell. Currently over 13,000 companies in all links in the feed chain are certified.

 

GMP+ certified companies are more and more confronted with questions to demonstrate that feed is not only safe but also responsibly produced and traded. These questions refer, for example, to the use of responsible feed ingredients. Within the GMP+ Feed Certification scheme, useful tools are available for the assurance of both feed safety and feed responsibility in the daily operations of a feed company.

Therefore, GMP+ International provides the possibility for certification of both feed safety and feed responsibility within one certification scheme. This creates a so-called ‘one-stop-shop multiple certification’ opportunity where one auditor can certify a company for both aspects in one audit. This saves both time and money and makes it more interesting for companies to be active in responsible feed production and trade. 

GMP+ International doesn’t have the intention to play a leading role in defining feed responsibility, because various market segments or regions have different wishes and opinions about feed responsibility. Therefore, GMP+ International created a plugin model in which certification of various market initiatives can be facilitated.

GMP+ International provides a basic GMP+ FRA (Feed Responsibility Assurance) Framework in which various market initiatives can be plugged in. This GMP+ FRA Framework consists of the GMP+ B100 Feed Responsibility Management System standard and a certification system. In this GMP+ FRA Framework, various market initiatives can be plugged in to provide certification for responsible feed production and/or trade.

With the publication of the first market initiatives documents in November 2014, GMP+ International launched the option to certify the production and/or trade of responsible feed. All current market initiative documents refer to the use of responsible soy, defined as RTRS or equivalent.

Both SMK (manager of the Dutch ‘Milieukeur’ certification scheme for pork, eggs and poultry meat) and the Dutch dairy industry (via the Responsible Dairy Chain – Duurzame Zuivelketen) requested a certification option for feed companies to demonstrate the use of responsible soy in the feed supplied to pigs, poultry and dairy cows. For the supply chain of RTRS soy, a combined certification is provided for the production and trade of RTRS soy.

This certification is approved by RTRS as equivalent to their RTRS Chain of Custody certification. These first market initiatives are an example on how market parties in the animal production chain collaborate on providing responsible food to the consumer.

Read the magazine HERE.

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