Designed for regions where producers and their customers require only a food safety solution, the new Produce Safety Assurance Standard V5. based on the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) Standard and consists of only the food safety elements.

The GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Safety Assurance Standard covers the certification of food safety elements throughout a product’s entire agricultural production process, from before the plant is in the ground (origin and propagation material control points) to the packaging.

The Produce Safety Assurance Standard offers several benefits to producers:

1. It reduces food safety risks in primary production by encouraging the development and adoption of national and regional farm assurance schemes, with a clear risk-assessed reference standard based on HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) serving both the consumer and the food supply chain.
2. It increases integrity by defining and enforcing a common level of auditor competence, verification status, reporting, and harmonizing interpretation of compliance criteria.

In future, producers will have the opportunity to gradually reach the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA certification level by adding various modules.

Main Difference Between the Produce Safety Assurance Standard and the IFA Standard

The food safety control points and compliance criteria that make up the Produce Safety Assurance Standard are essentially a subset of the IFA Standard. They cover only the food safety aspects of agricultural production. The Produce Safety Assurance Standard does not replace the IFA. However, it can serve as a starting point for gradually developing mechanisms and systems in place to eventually achieve IFA Certification.

The Integrated Farm Assurance Standard

GLOBALG.A.P. provides the standard and framework for independent, recognized third-party certification of primary production processes based on ISO/IEC 17065. Certification of the production process ensures that only those that reach a certain level of compliance with established Good Agricultural Practices (G.A.P.) set out in the GLOBALG.A.P. normative documents are certified. Certification of the on-farm production processes ensures compliance with established Good Agricultural Practices set out in the GLOBALG.A.P. normative documents.

The IFA covers Good Agricultural Practices for agriculture, aquaculture, livestock, and horticulture production. The standard was revised through an extensive stakeholder involvement and consultation, and IFA Version 5 was published in July 2015.

The GLOBALG.A.P. IFA Standard for Fruit and Vegetables has been successfully assessed against the GFSI benchmarking requirements and has achieved GFSI recognition for Scope B1: Farming of Plants and Scope D: Pre-Processing Handling of Plants.

Learn more at www.globalgap.org/ifa

GLOBALG.A.P. Add-Ons

GLOBALG.A.P. offers a series of add-ons designed to enhance GLOBALG.A.P. Certification, which cover specific aspects of the agricultural production process and supply chain. These include, for example,  GRASP – the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment for Social Practice, Animal Welfare Add-ons for livestock producers, SPRING – the Sustainable Program for Irrigation and Groundwater Use, and The NON-GM / "Ohne GenTechnik" Add-on for Aquaculture and Livestock.

GLOBALG.A.P.+ Add-on also offers members a program to develop a customized add-on solution based on the best certification development expertise that GLOBALG.A.P. has to offer.

Learn more at www.globalgap.org/addon