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National Interpretation Guideline (NIG)

A National Interpretation Guideline (NIG) is a document that provides guidance on how to implement GLOBALG.A.P. Control Points and Compliance Criteria at a national level. Developed by a National Technical Working Group, this guideline goes through a transparent approval procedure and, once approved, becomes a normative GLOBALG.A.P. document. This means that all the certification bodies working in the respective country must include this guideline within their certification procedures and inform all their customers about the NIG. Producers are given 3 months to implement the requirements in line with the NIG. And the accreditation bodies must ensure that all the accredited certification bodies have adopted the NIG in their auditing and certification activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a National Interpretation Guideline (NIG)?

A National Interpretation Guideline (NIG) is a document, which provides guidance on the implementation and auditing the compliance of a country interpretation of the GLOBALG.A.P. Compliance Criteria (CC) at a national level. It is the task of the National Technical Working Groups (NTWG) to develop the NIGs.

How do I create a National Interpretation Guideline?

First, check for the latest IFA, GRASP or CoC template in the GLOBALG.A.P. document center and download it. For any doubts, please contact ntwg@globalgap.org.

GLOBALG.A.P. implementation at national level has to comply with the CPCC requirements and the additional country-specific interpretation by the NTWG.

The NTWG shall enter their country interpretation in the last two columns of the template.

How shall I submit a draft National Interpretation Guideline?

All National Interpretation Guidelines shall be sent as a Word document by e-mail to ntwg@globalgap.org for validation and review.

What exactly shall be interpreted and how will it be reviewed?
  • The compliance criteria (CC) ONLY shall be interpreted.
  • Only those points where there is a change in the compliance criteria shall be interpreted. Do not repeat the original text of the IFA CC.
  • In case the interpretation refers to external documents e.g. forms, records, risk analysis, etc., they shall be included for review and in English.
  • The country interpretation does not replace the original CC, but it is a clarification and is in addition to the GLOBALG.A.P. CPCCs.
  • For those points where the NTWG has no relevant country interpretation, the cell shall be left empty.
  • For certain control points and compliance criteria the NTWG shall evaluate if it is related to national or regional legislation/regulation. If legislation exists, the NTWG shall make reference and shortly quote/explain the relevant parts of these legal requirements. If there is no applicable legislation, please enter “not applicable - n/a”.
  • NEW: The NTWG shall enter their answers to the reviewer’s comments and the exact wording of the NIG in the Internal Review Report document. Only in the final stage the NTWG shall submit both the review report and the NIG document with the final wording.
Which languages shall the National Interpretation Guideline contain?

The IFA CPCCs in the template are always in English, the country interpretation should be in English and the local language. For references to other languages, please see the IFA Standard documents.

How long will the approval of a National Interpretation Guideline take?

Please see the approval process flowchart. It depends on how fast the NTWG answers and complies with the GLOBALG.A.P. reviewer’s comments. The review period could vary from three to nine months in total.

After final review, the NIG will be sent for a four-week Peer Review and (if no comments received) for a two-week approval by the relevant Technical Committee.

The final published document will be sent to the relevant Technical Committee, all Accreditation and Certification Bodies operating in the country, as well as GLOBALG.A.P. Members.