GLOBALG.A.P. Certification Now Available for Packing Operations

The GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Handling Assurance (PHA) Standard is now available, providing an integrated certification option to grower-packers such as Peri & Sons Farms in Yerington, Nevada, USA. Peri & Sons Farms has been growing, packing and shipping premium onions from their farm for four generations. Food safety is at the forefront of their farming business. Their Director of Food Safety, Sara Brinkley, manages GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) certification for their farming operations. Until now, she has not had a GLOBALG.A.P. solution for certifying the packing operations too. She learned about the PHA Standard from the certification body SCS Global Services, who expressed it might be a better fit for their onion packing house operations than the standard they were currently using. Sara led Peri & Sons in a trial audit of the new PHA Standard and shared her first-hand experience of its application on the ground. “We are interested in decreasing audit fatigue on our facility and auditing personnel. We too feel the detailed scheme is a better fit for or packinghouse,” said Sara. “It seemed to drill down on the nuts and bolts of the operation a little better.”

GLOBALG.A.P. PHA covers pre-process production steps after the point of harvest for crops including cooling, packing, re-packing, handling, and storage of produce for human consumption. The PHA Standard may not be used to certify products significantly transformed from the original whole state or foods that are processed.

About GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Handling Assurance (PHA) Standard:

• Available to qualified produce handling operations in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.
• Available to qualified produce handling operations worldwide that pack and handle produce in an open-shed environment.
• Audit may be conducted in conjunction with the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance Standard for Fruit and Vegetables (IFA FV) or the Harmonized Produce Safety Standard (HPSS) audit to reduce audit redundancy and cost, particularly in cases where a grower is packing their own produce and has previously needed two separate audits.
• Incorporates USA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirements from both the Produce Safety Rule and the Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule, as appropriate.
• Aids operations in identifying FSMA requirements for handling operations.
• Enables generation of audit reports, non-conformity summaries, corrective action reports and certificates that can be provided to retailers and other value-chain participants as evidence of an operation’s efforts toward FSMA implementation.
• Covers GFSI requirements. GLOBALG.A.P. will apply for GFSI recognition for the PHA Standard in 2019 after the required one year of operating the standard.