Certification Option B: Group Certification

Producers can be certified to the CHC OFFS Program by organizing themselves as a Group and running their own food safety management system. This approach was developed based on GlobalGAP’s group certification scheme.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) has formally benchmarked and approved certification options B and C as meeting international requirements for on-farm food safety.

Essentially, Group Certification offers a two-layered approach to auditing, involving:

1. farm audits by the Group of its members’ sites, and
2. external (third party) audit of the Group itself by the CHC-designated Certification Body.

For the first layer of audits, the Group must carry out annual audits of each registered producer and production location. No sampling is permitted. These inspections must cover the full CHC Audit Checklist. New members must pass the audit prior to being entered on the Group’s registered list. In addition, each central “produce handling site”, whether a storage or packing facility, must be second-party audited annually. The Group must also internally audit its own Management System annually, based on the CHC OFFS Group Management System Checklist. The audit reports, corrective actions, etc. must be impartially reviewed. In effect, the Group is charged with acting as if it were a certification body operating with initial certification and annual surveillance audits of its members’ operations.

For the second layer, external audits of the Group itself, sampling is permitted to certify the Group. The specifics as to who is audited and at what frequency, including random sampling plans, are outlined in the chart below for Option B. Some costs are also indicated in the chart. The third party audit functions are carried out by the CHC-licensed Certification Body

In addition to the overview of requirements in the chart below, the following requirements must be met by the Group. These are consistent with GlobalGAP:

• The producer group must be a legal entity with the legal right to carry out agricultural production and/or trading, and be able to legally contract with and represent the group members (e.g., a cooperative, a producers association, a packing, trading or farming company). Several types of legal organization are excluded, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), consulting companies and development agencies.

• The group must have ultimate responsibility over the production, handling and ownership of the products; thus it is responsible for the compliance with the CHC requirements and the agreement signed as CHC program enrollee. However, each registered member must be legally responsible for their respective production locations.

• The entire crop of a registered product from all locations included in the group must be certified.

• The group must have in place a Management System (MS) that covers all aspects of the group and is sufficiently robust to ensure (and to demonstrate through audits) that the group’s producer members/production locations comply in a uniform manner with the CHC requirements. The basic elements of the Management System are those that would be included in a system that would comply with ISO 9001 or a basic version of a certification body (i.e., management responsibility, document control, training, a registry of farms, procedures for dealing with complaints, appeals, internal audits, farm inspections, suspensions and withdrawal of registrations of farms, etc).

In addition to the overall Group Management System , the producer group must meet several organizational requirements. These include having:

• a management representative, either a person or a department responsible for managing the implementation of the CHC requirements in the group;

• one or more internal inspector(s)/auditor(s) who are responsible for the internal inspections of each producer member of the group annually;

• internal auditor(s) who are responsible for the internal audit of the Group Management System;

• a technical person or department responsible for providing technical advice to the group; and

• a Group Management System person or department responsible for managing  the MS.

The above are functions, not necessarily individuals.

• The Group Management System Checklist identifies specific audit criteria and requirements for the qualifications and competencies of persons undertaking farm and central facility inspections/audits and QMS internal audits for Option B.

Group Certification:

(Note: Certification to Option B occurs on an annual basis.)

* A triggered audit would only be deemed necessary to investigate a potential food safety risk at a particular site. These could be triggered as a follow up to an on-site visit, from the audit of the Management System, etc . The cost of triggered audits would be borne by the Group. Participants can avoid triggered audits by managing risks as outlined in the CHC OFFS Manual.

IMPORTANT: You are advised to check with your customer regarding acceptance of various CanadaGAP certification options. Option B has been formally recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

Cost Implications

 

With Option B, some cost savings will be found in terms of a lower Annual Program Enrolment Fee payable to CHC for delivery of program services (on a per-producer basis, as compared to Options A or C). However, in contrast, Option B includes a potentially significant, additional cost component, related to the Group’s delivery of the required internal (second party) audits. Each grower must undergo a second party audit by the Group each year. The cost of administering an internal food safety management system and delivery of internal audits is up to the group, allowing for these costs to be scaled to decisions made relative to internal administration.

Option B involves four cost components:

• Annual Program Enrolment Fee
• Internal (Group) Delivery Costs - to manage the system, conduct internal audits, etc.
• Audit Fees
• Auditor Travel Expenses

1) Annual Program Enrolment Fee Paid by the program participant to the CHC. Covers CHC’s costs to administer the program, process enrolment applications, maintain the technical standards and training materials, oversee Certification Bodies, pursue international benchmarking and maintain our government recognition status, collect and analyse data, monitor developments in food safety science and media, offer technical support to the Certification Bodies, communicate to program participants, program marketing/education, office overhead, staff and related expenses.

2) Internal (Group) Delivery Costs to manage their internal system, conduct internal audits, review audit reports of Group member farms, follow up on corrective actions, etc.

3) Audit Costs Paid directly by the program participant to the Certification Body. Covers the Certification Body's cost to deliver audit and certification services including auditor’s time to perform audits, auditor travel time and expenses, technical review of audit reports, follow-up on corrective actions, issuing certificates, administration and office overhead, billing functions, etc.

4) Auditor’s Travel Expenses Costs vary depending on location of the facility, closest available auditor, and proximity to other audit sites. Every effort will be made to schedule audits in such a way to minimize auditor travel expenses.