A Food Safety Strategy for Global Logistics Operations: A Global Concept with Local Relevance

Introduction: Food safety and Logistics operations will be an area of great focus for the coming years. New international trading agreements, FSMA and changes in EU legislation will re-shape the international food trade, so there is a greater than ever need to create a Logistics’ food safety strategy that will reflect the new market conditions. Logistics’ food safety is a part of the supply chain that till today did not have the needed focus and attention. A global food safety capacity development program for Logistics is missing from our global food safety system, a program that will bridge the differences between developed and less developed markets.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to analyse the current food safety certification status on Logistics of 26 countries of Europe and Asia, with an objective to build a food safety capacity development program that will reflect the individual market needs and conditions and will bridge the gap between developed and less developed markets for Logistics food safety.

Methods: The method for developing such a program was based on the model of the successful program of GFSI-Global Markets.

Results: The initial results from pilot countries have shown that such a program helps in developing the food safety knowledge of Logistics companies and is the tool needed for the step by step development of their food safety system in a cost efficient way.

Significance: The significance of this program is very high because, while Logistics companies are operating today on a globalised economy, in several cases their food safety level is fluctuating and still reflecting more the local food safety level. So a food safety capacity development program for Logistics operations is something that was definitely missing from the market.