Organic producers are busy and have a lot going on, especially during harvest. Overlapping regulations and requirements for a modern farm and all the inspections that result have many producers experiencing “audit fatigue.” Since the inception of CCOF’s food safety program, organic growers have been asking for a combined food safety and organic inspection to reduce the amount of time these inspections take them away from what they love to do: work their farms.
CCOF, an organization that is governed by a board of organic producers, heard you loud and clear. We began cross-training GlobalG.A.P. auditors to perform organic inspections back in 2015 and have been successfully combining organic and GFSI-benchmarked GlobalG.A.P. inspections ever since, saving organic producers’ time and money.
Our cross-trained auditors have years of experience working with producers on organic and food safety compliance and are dedicated to efficiently and reliably inspecting your operation. One inspector can see all your fields and facilities in one trip, saving valuable time. Many organic records overlap with food safety and vice versa. While these combined inspections may take longer, it is only one inspection event instead of two, yielding precious time back to you and your farm.
CCOF offers food safety services via the GlobalG.A.P. standards, which are GFSI-benchmarked farm food safety standards that help producers comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). We can also certify the non-organic aspects of your farm for food safety. Coming soon, CCOF will be offering the GlobalG.A.P. FSMA add-on to the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard, along with the GlobalG.A.P. Produce Handling Assurance (PHA) standard, which is a standalone packing-house Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) audit.
Our goal is to provide food safety services by and for the organic community, with integrity and efficiency. Learn more about CCOF’s food safety services or contact me with questions or for a quote.