BSI and Fera: building resilience in the food supply chain together
BSI, the business improvement company, has announced a new global partnership with Fera to improve resilience in the food industry. The relationship will be leveraged to grow access to supply chain intelligence software solutions, launch the new Kitemark™ for Food Assurance and cultivate an innovation-focused food community.
The partnership will increase the food sector’s access to Fera’s HorizonScan and Food SCREEN to clients to provide access to data and accelerate transparency in the food supply chain. It empowers food safety managers, commodity buyers and procurement teams to identify current risks to business-critical commodities, implement contingencies in response to meteorological and social disruptions and reduce the risk of recalls. It also enables them to research new, back-up and alternative suppliers and factor product safety into the decision-making process.
The two organisations are also integrating science with standards to develop a Kitemark™ for Food Assurance. The independent verification mark will give consumers and B2B buyers the ability to trust that a product lives up to its promise (examples include purity, authenticity, social and/or ethical production).
Fera is also the first contributing member of the BSI Food Community. The community will identify key opportunities for the industry to innovate, collaborate and accelerate solutions where there are none in place or the solution is not fit for purpose. Projects under discussion include biostimulants standards and the development of a publicly available specification (PAS) integrated with Fapas proficiency testing".
David Horlock, Managing Director of Global Food at BSI said: “Together with Fera we will continue to raise standards in the food industry, tackling business critical issues like supply-chain transparency and authenticity. The sector-leading collaboration means that we can help support clients’ ever-evolving needs, through solutions like the Kitemark™ for Food Assurance and the Food Community.”
Commenting on the partnership, Dr Andrew Swift, CEO at Fera said: “Driven by a common set of values and purpose to help brands uphold their customer promise and enhance consumer safety, Fera and BSI bring a unique combination of strengths to this global challenge.”
Fapas Proficiency Testing
Proficiency testing is an independent check of your laboratory procedures that provides you with a completely confidential assessment of your capability. Participation in proficiency testing schemes not only allows you to demonstrate the validity of your systems and the technical ability of your staff, it also helps you gain and maintain ISO/17025 accreditation.
HorizonScan
HorizonScan holds over 20 years of global data from 100s of Official sources, as well as 1000s of media feeds. The online dashboards cover over 600 commodities across all hazard types from Pesticides and Micro to Fraud and Modern Slavery\ Animal Welfare, with companies involved named where available.
BSI Screen
SCREEN (Supply Chain Risk Exposure Evaluation Network) is a web-based portal providing live risk-based heat maps, spotlight news, intelligence reports and country risk reports covering food safety and fraud, supply chain security, corporate social responsibility as well as environmental and business continuity.
