Global Food Safety Initiative Starts New Chapter as CEO-led Coalition of Action

33 CGF Members Join the All-New Coalition and Will Be Governed by New Steering Committee

GFSI Becomes Eighth Coalition of Action Under the Stewardship of The Consumer Goods Forum

PARIS, March 23, 2021, /3BL Media/ – The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) today announced that the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is starting a new chapter as the CGF’s Coalition of Action on Food Safety. Building on the GFSI’s 20 years of experience in helping drive the continuous improvement of food safety systems, the new Coalition will continue to represent the food industry’s commitment to  food safety and invest in voluntary advances for the benefit of people worldwide and the wider industry. However, the new Coalition will also increase efforts to move with more agility and increased transparency. The Coalition will be led at the CGF-Board level by Dirk Van de Put, Chairman & CEO, Mondelēz International, and Danny Wegman, Chairman, Wegmans Food Markets.

According to the WHO, an estimated 600 million people around the world – almost 1 in 10 – fall ill after eating contaminated food each year and concerns over food safety have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle this, the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Their ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is.

Wai-Chan Chan, Managing Director of The Consumer Goods Forum, said, “The CGF Board has been clear in its ambition to drive change further and faster, and we have been working with them and our Governance Committee over the last 18 months to shake-up how our work is being undertaken. GFSI is the latest of our initiatives to become an official Coalition of Action, and we are excited to see how the new model and commitment to collaboration and transparency will help shape food safety across our industry for years to come”.

While many individual companies and organisations share a similar goal, GFSI’s focus is on enabling the extensive collaboration that is so critical to safe food – involving food retailers and manufacturers, but also suppliers, the agriculture industry, academics, governments and many others across the world.

Underpinning the actions of the Coalition is its Race to the Top Framework - a collection of initiatives to help drive continuous improvement in the food safety system. This reimagining of the GFSI strategy – based on extensive consultation – is supported by a Coalition Charter and will help its members to collaborate at scale, and with other key stakeholders within the GFSI Community, from farm to fork to ensure transparency in the work they are doing and trust in the Coalition’s outcomes.

33 retailers and manufacturers from the CGF membership are the first to sign-up to the Coalition. And, as part of the new governance model, GFSI is also welcoming 18 members to its all-new Steering Committee. Their role will be to help shape the direction of the Coalition and help deliver its mission of driving collaboration between retailers and manufacturers and ensure an open and transparent relationship with key stakeholders. The new GFSI Steering Committee members are:

• Barbara Masters, Tyson Foods
• Cliona Murphy, PepsiCo
• David Rasmussen, Kraft Heinz  
• Gillian Kelleher, Wegmans
• Howard Popoola, Kroger
• Kazuaki Miyagishima, Aeon
• Michael McDonald, Mars, Incorporated
• Monique Pellegrino, Danone
• Natalie Dyenson, Dole Food Company
• Natasha Matyasova, Nestlé
• Pierre de Ginestel, Auchan
• Ray Bowe, Musgrave
• Roy Kirby, Mondelēz International
• Sean Leighton, Cargill
• Tom Wiester, Starbucks
• Tracy Burton, Unilever
• Vaneska Mattos, Loblaw Companies Limited
• Zoltan Sypposs, The Coca-Cola Company

GFSI will review new applications to join the Steering Committee on a quarterly basis, and retail and manufacturing members of The Consumer Goods Forum are welcome to apply to be part of this exciting CGF Coalition of Action on Food Safety.

Dirk Van de Put, Chairman & CEO of Mondelēz International, and CGF Board Co-Sponsor of GFSI, said, “My peers on the CGF Board and I are proud of the direction GFSI is now taking and we are confident the brand is in an even stronger position to build trust in food safety systems worldwide. Following a rigorous selection process, we have strong leadership guiding our industry’s efforts to ensure safe food for people everywhere. We are not done yet, however, and we look forward to further strengthening the Steering Committee in the months and years ahead”.

More specifically, GFSI’s work is focused on harmonising and driving improvements in food safety certification programmes; building food safety capabilities across the global food supply chain; and providing a platform for public-private partnerships, including governments, food safety regulators and IGOs. GFSI works to ensure best-practice knowledge sharing across its global community. Of course, critical to GFSI’s success is the extended GFSI Community that has evolved over 20 years of collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

Erica Sheward, GFSI Director at The Consumer Goods Forum, said, “We believe everyone has a right to safe food. However, we cannot achieve this alone. Food safety needs to be everyone’s business, and we must work together to build consumers’ trust in the food they buy. Collective action and engagement across the entire supply chain is critical to our success, so we welcome those who wish to engage and partner with us as we seek continuous improvement in food safety systems and management practices throughout the supply chain. The global GFSI Community will continue to be a powerful group in supporting food safety advancements and we look forward to working alongside them”.

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About the Global Food Safety Initiative

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is a CEO-led Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, bringing together 33 retailers and manufacturers and an extended food safety community to help oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere. As one of the world’s largest networks to help achieve safe food , GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business and the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in, and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Its ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is. To learn more, visit www.mygfsi.com.

About The Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF”) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises 58 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

For further information, please contact:

Lee Green
Communications Director
The Consumer Goods Forum
l.green@theconsumergoodsforum.com