An outside service provider is someone who performs an activity that the operation would otherwise perform himself. “On behalf of” is the key phrase used and means in reference to the activities being provided by someone else, these are activities that the operation would otherwise be responsible for doing themselves within their certification scope.
For example, if an operation is certified for “Production”, the following activities would normally be included in the scope of their certification: growing, harvesting, putting harvested product into harvested product packaging materials, cooling, rinsing, storing, etc.
If the operation outsourced one of those activities, a certificate would be needed from the outside service provider.
Scopes of Certification:
Production: Activities (e.g., growing, harvesting, putting harvested product into harvested product packaging materials, cooling, rinsing, etc.) involved with harvested product. The production operation may or may not store and/or transport product.
Packing: Includes:
(i) The physical act of taking harvested product and putting it into market ready packaging materials for the first time (both in the production site and in the
packinghouse). This does not include re-packing. Note for the purposes of the certification scope, putting product into harvested product packaging materials at harvest is not considered “Packing”.
(ii) Activities (e.g., icing, labelling/coding, cooling, etc.) that occur once product is in the packaging materials.
The operation involved with packing may or may not store and/or transport packed product.
Repacking: Includes:
1) Removing market product from its market ready packaging materials, re-handling the product (e.g., re-sorting, re-grading, re-trimming, re-washing, re-fluming, etc.), and putting it into market ready packaging materials. Product may also be combined with other product that differs in some way (e.g., type, origin, timeframe, etc.).
2) Activities (e.g., icing, labelling/coding, cooling, etc.) that occur once product is in the packaging materials.
The operation involved with repacking may or may not store and/or transport product.
Wholesaling: Activity where operations are involved ONLY in storage of market product (see definition of “storage”). The operation may or may not transport product.
Brokerage: Activity where the operation is ONLY involved in arranging the transaction of product between a supplier and a buyer. The brokerage operation does NOT physically handle the product in any way. The person responsible for brokerage is the “broker”.
Examples:
Below are some examples where an outside service provider would need to provide the operation with a certificate:
a) If the operation is certified for “Production” – harvesting is an activity the producer would complete themselves. If they use an outside service provider for harvesting, they must follow the requirement.
b) If an operation is certified for “Production” – storing is an activity the producer would complete themselves. If they use an outside service provider to store product, they must follow the requirement.
c) If an operation is certified for “Packing” – icing is an activity the packer would complete themselves. If they use an outside service provider to ice the product, they must follow the requirement.
d) If an operation is certified for “Packing” – labelling is an activity the packer would complete themselves. If they use an outside service provider to label the product, they must follow the requirement.
Therefore, activities that are certifiable within a CanadaGAP scope that are conducted “on behalf” of the operation would need the outside service provider to provide a certificate.