Eurepgap/Globalgap


 

Eurepgap/Globalgap is an umbrella organisation of mainly European supermarkets monitoring the safety of food offered in supermarkets.

Problems such as dioxin in eggs, chlormequat in pears, BSE in beef, cyprodinil in strawberries, (etc.) have compelled a number of major supermarkets to assess the situation. They have all come to one important conclusion: safe food is a right and is therefore not something you can compete for.

 

 

Since then, producers, information services and control organisations have joined forces and laid down mutually acceptable standards for wholesome food.


The standards can be divided up into three groups:

  • Technical: one objective is to use as few chemical pest control products as possible so as to minimise the impact of residues on man and the environment.
  • Hygienic: these standards consist of measures to guarantee that the harvested crops are not contaminated either bacteriologically or physically.
  • Working environment: these are designed to prevent social abuses of agricultural workers.

 

Eurepgap/Globalgap also focuses very much on traceability. If, in spite of the precautions taken, a problem occurs, the supermarkets aim to isolate the problem and to withdraw the defective products from the market. This is to avoid a repeat of situations which arose during the last dioxin crisis when several products were removed from the shelves even though they were problem-free. These initiatives have been introduced to restore the customers' faith.


A detailed description of these standards is not feasible at this point, but if you require further details, you can visit the Eurepgap/Globalgap website (www.globalgap.org) or you can obtain an information packet from Integra simply by telephoning, faxing, or sending an e-mail. This information packet contains all the relevant standards, the certification regulations, and an indication of the various stages of the inspection and certification procedure.

It is clear that, in future, if a producer wishes to sell his/her products to the supermarkets, he/she will have to show that these products comply with Eurepgap/Globalgap standards. Some buyers will insist as early as next season that all products bought by them have been produced in accordance with Eurepgap/Globalgap standards. Others will demand that the necessary steps are taken towards Eurepgap/Globalgap compliance and will only stipulate later that all products are to be certified by Eurepgap/Globalgap.


INTEGRA and Eurepgap/Globalgap

From the very beginning, Integra has kept abreast of the Eurepgap/Globalgap developments. At the end of October 2000, Eurepgap/Globalgap started to recognise certifying organisations. These organisations have to meet very strict standards to be able to work as a certifying organisation for Eurepgap/Globalgap. They must show that they have a well-thought-out quality system for objective, independent and honest inspections. Moreover, their highly trained employees need to be experts in their fields. Integra has been recognized immediately as a certifying organisation and is one of the first to be accredited in this way worldwide.

Integra has following accreditation certificates:

  • standard ISO 17020 as type A inspection body (certificate No 103-INSP).

  • standard EN 45011 certification of products (certificate No 103-PROD).

  • standard EN 45012 certification of quality systems (certificate No 103-QMS).

For more information on inspection and certification, you can contact Gerrit De Weerdt [gerrit.de.weerdt@integra-bvba.be] at the Integra office.

 

EUREPGAP/GLOBALGAP CERTIFICATION OUTSIDE BELGIUM

See the list of offices abroad

 

EUREPGAP/GLOBALGAP DOCUMENTS

You can download the "General Regulations" en "Control Points and Compliance Criteria" from the Globalgap website.


Download the [PDF document Request for a quotation for Eurepgap/Globalgap certification ]

Download the [ PDF document Certification guide Eurepgap/Globalgap ]

Download the [PDF document Sublicence and Certification Agreement Globalgap ]:
this document is part of the agreement between Integra and the company concerning Globalgap certification.

 

 

 

The downloadable documents on this page are PDF documents or ZIP files. The zip files contain besides the pdf version also an MS Word or Excel version of the document. You need a pdf viewer like Adobe®Reader® to open and view PDF files. You can download Adobe® Reader® for free from Adobe's website. Freeware programs to extract files from zip archives are sufficiently available on the Internet. Most current Operating Systems also have the builtin ability to extract archives.

 

 

 

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