Dear EFISC and GTP operators, dear Certification Bodies,
Following several years of fruitful cooperation, the European Feed Ingredient Safety Certification Scheme (EFISC) and the COCERAL Good Trading Practice Code (GTP Code) Certification Scheme have decided to join forces thereby also making stronger use of synergies. As of 1st July 2017 GTP and EFISC certification schemes will operate jointly, under the new name “European Feed & Food Ingredients Safety Certification” Aisbl (EFISC-GTP).
What does this mean for the operator, the certification body and other stakeholders?
All rights and obligations of GTP will be transferred to EFISC-GTP of which COCERAL will become a full member, partnering side by side with FEDIOL and Starch Europe. Existing contracts with GTP will stay in place until revision/renewal.
Until March 2018 EFISC-GTP Aisbl will manage the two existing schemes EFISC and GTP and the daily operations of GTP will be managed by EFISC-GTP, not by COCERAL anymore.
The certification of the EFISC and GTP schemes until March 2018
EFISC certified Operators will remain EFISC certified and GTP certified Operators will remain GTP certified in compliance with the present version of the respective Codes.
Certification bodies providing the EFISC or GTP certification will continue to do so as described in the respective Rules of Certification.
The certification of the EFISC-GTP scheme as of March 2018
The revised EFISC-GTP scheme 4.0 will be published early 2018, after a consultation period with stakeholders as the European Accreditation Body and GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative).
As of March 2018 the EFISC-GTP scheme 4.0 will be implemented for certification and will replace the EFISC and GTP schemes. There will be a transfer period of one year. Contracts will be renewed, based on the new EFISC-GTP 4.0 version (food safety management system, ISO/IEC 17021 supplemented with ISO/TS 22003) and therefore on the new Scheme requirements as described in the EFISC-GTP rules of certification. You can find the documents on the stakeholder consultation page for your best use.
The EFISC-GTP website
All information on EFISC and GTP schemes, its management and its certification, as well as the database with certified operators, can be found on the re-launched EFISC-GTP.EU website as of 1 st July 2017. The EFISC and GTP Code website will be closed down as of 1 July and the operators will be automatically re-directed to the new EFISC-GTP Website (www.efisc-gtp.eu) which will provide all information.
Use of the Logo
The EFISC and GTP certificates will continue to use the respective EFISC and GTP logos until the new EFISC-GTP Version 4.0 will be implemented as of March 2018.
