The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Board of Directors announced that the CanadaGAP Scheme Version 6 Options B and C and Program Management Manual Version 3 have been successfully re-benchmarked by GFSI and have achieved recognition against the GFSI Guidance Document Sixth Edition. CanadaGAP has been recognized against the following scopes: BI Farming of Plants and D Pre-process Handling of Plant Products

Over the course of the re-benchmarking process, the GFSI Benchmark Committee compared the requirements for food safety scheme ownership, management and supporting systems outlined in the GFSI Guidance Document Sixth Edition against the detailed documentation and objective evidence provided by CanadaGAP for each requirement. This process comprised numerous exchanges of documents until the Benchmark Committee were satisfied that the requirements outlined in the Guidance Document had been met and that the requirements contained in the CanadaGAP scheme were equivalent. Once reviewed by the Benchmark Committee, the application was released to over 9000 GFSI stakeholders for a one-month consultation, which speaks to the transparent approach to benchmarking that is embedded in the GFSI Guidance Document Sixth Edition.

The re-benchmarking exercise against the GFSI Guidance Document Sixth Edition represented a significant change from the previous approach against the Fifth Edition. Apart from strengthening the requirements for the management of schemes, the major change in the Sixth Edition is the expansion of the document to cover primary production, processing and supporting activities in a more robust way, taking a scope specific approach to eventually cover all parts of the food supply chain.