GFSI Welcomes Four New Members Into Coalition of Action

PARIS, August 16, 2021 /3BL Media/ - Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition), The Consumer Goods Forum’s Coalition of Action on food safety, is pleased to announce that four more companies have joined its ranks. The four companies – Develey, Kerry, Spinneys and Sysco – are now part of a unique group that is collaborating across borders to ensure safe food for everyone. The Coalition now totals 38 companies, all of whom are members of The Consumer Goods Forum.

Around the world, an estimated 600 million people – almost 1 in 10 – fall ill after eating contaminated food each year and concerns over food safety have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle this, Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally.

Everyone has the right to access safe, nutritious, and nourishing food which is why GFSI’s work is critical to every community across the globe. As one of the world’s leading networks to help achieve safe food, GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business.

Sophie Kaiser, Lead unit QM Management Systems at Develey’s department of Quality and Risk Management, said, “As a family-owned and operated company, we think in terms of generations and rely on sustainable economic business practices and quality without compromise. This is the only way our company will remain competitive and can be handed down. As long-time members of The Consumer Goods Forum, we understand the need to drive actions on the key challenges impacting our industry. Food safety is one such area that many people take for granted, but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and the GFSI Coalition is one of the key groups ensuring the food safety bar continues to be raised. We are proud to be a part of such a group”.

Hugo Gutierrez, Global Food Safety & Quality Officer at Kerry, said, “Kerry is an innovative company and our business is all about helping our customers to develop delicious and nutritious food with unparalleled consumer appeal. In the last few years, in our journey to achieve word class food safety, we have invested in state-of-the-art food safety programmes and innovated behavioural change programmes. We apply these latest innovations and behaviours not only to our products, but to areas such as sustainability and food safety. If it’s not safe, it’s not food, and we are wholly committed to GFSI’s approach to improving food safety standards for businesses. We look forward to working together, sharing our own knowledge and experiences with the group. And as stated in our moto we all need to live by “Safety first, Quality always!”.

Sharon Sausman, HOD - Technical & Compliance at Spinneys, said, “We at Spinneys are glad to be a part of the GFSI Coalition, a key part of the Consumer Goods Forum. The CGF and the Coalition is well placed to support our efforts to build capabilities at a local, regional and international level. Our team at Spinneys is eager and delighted to join the GFSI, as the Coalition is as committed as we are to delivering safe food through tangible actions and knowledge sharing in a practical, analytical and adaptive manner”.

Mitch Gilgour, Sysco’s Senior Director, Quality Assurance: “Our mission is to deliver success for our customers through industry-leading people, products and solutions. The GFSI Coalition represents a key industry collaboration that is critical to helping us to deliver safe food to our customers around the world. We look forward to working with our food safety peers to ensure the highest levels of food safety versus the lowest level of compliance, and GFSI can help us achieve this”.

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About Global Food Safety Initiative

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is a CEO-led Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, bringing together 38 retailers and manufacturers and an extended food safety community to help oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere. As one of the world’s largest networks to help achieve safe food , GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business and the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in, and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Its ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is. To learn more, visit www.mygfsi.com.

For more information, please contact Lee Green, Director, Communications, The Consumer Goods Forum at l.green@theconsumergoodsforum.com