Here is the list of Food Standards and Services that you can incorporate in your organisation irrespective of the size or the product. The objective of the services is to help businesses maintain a standard quality, safety and efficient practices which in return enable them to gain customer trust along with global recognition.

Food Safety Certifications
ISO 22000 FSMS
ISO 22000 is applicable to all the types of food suppliers as it provides assurance within the food supply chain at the national as well as international level. With globalisation increasing and easier inter-state and international expansion, it has become essential to ensure the safety and quality of the foods for the well-being as well as trust of the people.

FSSC 22000
The objective of the FSSC 22000 is to control food safety risks. FSSC stands for Food Safety Management Certification Scheme which essentially provides structured plans and system for managing food safety risks and as a result, safe products.Since it fulfils all the Global Food Safety Initiatives (GFSI) benchmark requirements, the FSSC 22000 is widely accepted and recognised as a trustworthy certification across the globe. It is applicable to the food, feed and food packaging manufacturing and supplying sector. Also, its flexibility allows food businesses to integrate with other management systems for quality, environment, health as well as safety.

Some of the unique benefits of FSSC 22000 include:
HACCP
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. Similar to other food safety management standards, it also demonstrates strong ethics, healthy food practices and your commitment to your customers for trading and producing safe food. HACCP is specifically used for preventing microbiological, chemical and physical contamination in the food production and supply. Unlike many standards, it follows an evidence-based approach which enhances its efficiency and accuracy. Benefits include:

• Identify food risks
• Establish critical control points
• Set critical limits
• Ensure control measures are validated verified and monitored
• Fulfil market requirements

BRCGS Food and BRCGS Packaging and Packaging Materials
BRC stands for British Retail Consortium which introduced BRCG – British Retail Consortium Global Standards for the food and manufacturing industries with the purpose of empowering manufacturers to efficiently fulfil legal obligations as well as ensure safety of the consumers. The BRCG food standard is developed to ensure quality, hygiene and product safety in the food industry. The BRCGS packaging focuses on the packaging that is associated with the foods. It focuses on the hygiene risks of the packaging materials. It is applicable to the manufacturers of packaging and packaging materials that are utilised in food packaging, filling operations as well as packaging materials for cosmetics, toiletries, cosmetic products and so on.

FAMI – QS
FAMI – QS certification is a profound Quality and Feed Safety Management System known at a global level for feed ingredients. The feed ingredients are intentionally added ingredients that may or may not carry any nutritional value and affect the characteristics of the original feed or animal products as well as animal performance. FAMI QS code helps in encouraging measuring and monitoring the safety of and quality of feed additives and premixtures.

SQF
SQF stands for Safe Quality Food. It is a certification provided by GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative). It is a sole certification that provides the standardised safety management requirements for manufacturers and suppliers across the globe. The SQF certification demonstrates your compliance with international and domestic food safety regulations which ultimately provides assurance to the suppliers and customers that the produced food products are of high-quality and produced with healthy and standardised practices.

AIB
American Institute of Baking food (AIB) International is an education body that provides food safety audits, inspection, certification, and educational seminars to food manufacturing and distribution industry. The purpose of the AIB is ensuring quality assurance and food safety. They offer seminars, webinars, web-based training, distance learning, printed and video materials.

GMP
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification provides guidelines for the control and management of manufacturing, testing and maintaining control over the quality of the foods and pharmaceutical products. The GMP helps in ensuring that the products are continually produced and controlled as per the defined quality standards.

Why Do Businesses Want Or Need Food Safety Certification?
There are a number of reasons why businesses want or need food safety certification. First and foremost, an establishment that sells food is breaking the law  in the case that they do not have food safety certification. But secondly, it’s truly just bad business to not obtain proper food-handling certification when operating a business that the public is trusting to handle their food.The Global Food Safety Resource tells us the importance behind obtaining food safety certification:

“Food safety certification conveys to consumers and the marketplace, as well as to employees and key stakeholders, that a food sector business has successfully met the requirements of a national or internationally recognised best practice approach. Certification by an objective third-party can be invaluable to any business as it signifies good governance and corporate responsibility. With heightened awareness stemming from recent high profile food recalls, consumers are demanding an increase in food safety standards throughout the global supply chain. Those businesses which become certified to a particular food safety scheme will gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Who is Required to Obtain A Food Safety Certificate?
Depending on where you live, an establishment may or may not be required to have all of its food-handling employees certified in food safety. Your province or territory may require just one of its food handlers to be certified, while others may require all food handling employees to obtain this requirement.

“By law, all food-handlers must be adequately trained in food safety. Depending on your province or territory, food- handler certification may be a legal requirement. Food-handler certification requirements are set and enforced at a provincial and municipal level. As a food business owner, training manager or general manager, you need to have a clear understanding of specific food safety laws in your province or territory to ensure that the business is adhering to federal, provincial and municipal laws.”

Benefits Food Safety Certification
Food Safety Standards is one of the common requirements for doing a food business. Having a fully certified food safety management system includes benefits such as –

• A well-executed food safety management system helps a food business to consistently produce safe and quality food that meets the consumers expectations.
• A food organisation after getting certified strengthens the confidence of customers in their products.
• A food safety certification ensures the compliances to legal requirements of the country of origin and destination country.
• A food safety certification enables the food business to work in the world market thereby reducing barriers to international trade.
• Dynamic communication on food safety issues with suppliers, customers, regulators and other interested parties.
• Products from a certified food organisation are accepted around the world.

(The authors are Ph.D. research scholars at College of Food Technology, VNMKV, Parbhani. They can be reached at priyankakale665@gmail.com)