Baby leaf salad controls for the United Kingdom

The British food market requires its suppliers to comply with strict safety and hygiene standards for LSD food products , and some distribution chains have even created private food safety certifications with public standard-setting processes. These certifications share the same bases with other international standards and represent an essential requirement in order to operate on this baby leaf salad market across the British channel.

Since day one OP Isola Verde has been committed to complying with the highest safety standards and has obtained the 4 main certifications required to export baby leaf salads to the United Kingdom. Here are the details:

The BRC Global Standard for Food Safety certification was born in 1998 to ensure that brand products are produced according to well-defined quality standards and in compliance with minimum requirements.

The standard requires the development and compliance with the following key aspects:

• Adoption of good management practices
• Adoption of a HACCP system for food safety
• Adoption of a Quality Management System
• Appropriate specifications

The work group that developed the BRC standard is composed of the main UK LSD chains, as can be seen in Appendix 10 to the standard itself, which gives thanks to the members of the group.

The importance of this standard is that it is internationally recognised, it complies with the requirements of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), and has 23.000 companies certified worldwide.

Moreover, BRC allows certified companies to be listed in the publicly accessible BRC Global Standards Directory and, as a result, suppliers can verify which companies have adopted an appropriate food safety system.

B.R.C. certification was obtained by the Telgate (BG) facility of Cooperativa Isola Verde.

Field to Fork Certification

Field to Fork Certification is a specific certificate for Marks & Spencer multinational distribution chain suppliers.

Also known as M&S, Marks & Spencer is based in London and has over 850 stores in the UK alone, plus stores in Italy, Ireland, Russia, Egypt, Spain, France, Poland and more. The chain specialises in the sale of superior quality food, which is why it requires high standards of food safety from all its suppliers.

Two OP Isola Verde affiliated farms have obtained this prestigious certification, becoming official global M&S suppliers.

TESCO NURTURE is a mandatory certification to become fruit and vegetable suppliers for Tesco supermarkets, the leading retail chain in the UK market, which has over 6,800 stores worldwide and specialises in food.

Tesco NURTURE ensures that best farming practices are adopted throughout the production cycle. Farmers need to demonstrate that in producing its food and vegetables, they have complied with all the relative standards, in an environmentally responsible manner, and the health and hygiene levels meet the high expectations of Tesco’s consumers.

From a technical point of view, “Nurture” is a certification created by Tesco and an add-on to the Global G.A.P. certification required to become a supplier to the UK market.

At the start of January 2017 the certification programme for suppliers of TESCO was included as an additional assessment module included in the GLOBAL G.A.P. IFA V5 certification process and was renamed NURTURE MODULE V11; it adds additional control points related to the management of plant health products in relation to the specific requirements of this UK brand. This allows companies to carry out combined audits and therefore to obtain the certificates of both GLOBAL GAP and Tesco in a single process.

The certification scheme belongs to Tesco and is exclusively dedicated to its suppliers.

OP Isola Verde has 5 affiliated companies that have obtained this certification and are authorised to supply their baby leaf salads to Tesco stores.