On global food safety systems

This thread from the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group has sparked a great exchange about global food safety standards - some argue there is nothing "standard" about them. And what are the respective roles of private versus government guidelines? Monachus from the group writes this (you will want to join the discussion group for the full post of Monachus - it's worth it):

The matter of the comparability of standards is a subject of considerable interest in Canada. So much so that the fresh produce stakeholders - the Canadian Horticultural Council (producer/packers), the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (repackers/wholesalers),
the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (small chains & independents) and the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors (major chains) - joined together in 2007 to commission a review of the Canadian HACCP-bases food safety programs for producer/packers and repackers/wholesalers and 15 programs from outside of Canada. While previous studies have focused on mostly one-on-one comparisons, this is the first "large" scale review that looked at these two key segments of the supply chain.

The results of this study are available on the CPMA website at:......