Technical news – Core solutions entries
All core solutions: Technical news
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Chain of Custody: Technical news
Countries of destination are no longer included on GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody (CoC) certificates because they are outside the scope of the CoC standard and are not verified during the audit.
Under the CoC general regulations, only information that is assessed and verified during the audit is displayed on the certificate and in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT platform. Any listed destination countries would be based solely on company declarations, can change over time, and would not demonstrate compliance with destination-country requirements.
During a CoC audit, the auditor does not verify compliance with the legal requirements of individual destination countries; instead, the audit assesses whether the company has effective procedures in place to identify and comply with those requirements. If those procedures are functioning correctly, the company can sell products to any destination country.
Including countries of destination on certificates would therefore create the misleading impression that the countries and compliance with their requirements have been verified, while also generating unnecessary administrative work, as every new market would require a certificate update despite no additional assessment taking place.
NOTE: For compliance with CoC SC 2.1, verification of destination countries applies only if the supplier is a producer/producer group with IFA-certified production processes.
GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody (CoC) general regulations, section 4.4.1 c)
For fruits and vegetables and for combinable crops, the CoC certification scope may include products that undergo processing methods such as cutting, slicing, dicing, freezing, and/or quick freezing (IQF), deshelling and drying so long as the original product remains visibly recognizable.
We would like to clarify that the activities listed in the CoC general regulations are examples, not an exhaustive list. Other processes, such as hulling nuts, drying, or removing pomegranate arils, are also included within the CoC scope, provided the original product remains visibly recognizable.
We offer here a summary of activities, along with the corresponding auditor qualification requirements, to provide greater clarity to all parties involved in CoC certification:
We would like to inform you that CBs auditing against CoC v6.1 shall seek to become CoC accredited according to ISO/IEC 17065 and can use the accreditation mark on the CoC certificate they issue.
CBs auditing against CoC through BRCGS, CoC through IFS or CoC through QS is not mandatory to be CoC accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, and they cannot use the accreditation mark on the GLOBALG.A.P. CoC certificates they issue.
Compound Feed Manufacturing: Technical news
We would like to inform you that the attribute “Sections covered by certificate” was renamed “Additional sections covered by certificate.” The value 1 (“Additional voluntary environmental and social governance requirements included”) was removed.
The existing values are:
2 = Environmental permits
3 = Fair operating practices
4 = Manufacturing process – Energy
5 = Manufacturing process – Emissions
6 = Manufacturing process – Water
7 = Manufacturing process – Waste
8 = Manufacturing process – Effluents
9 = Labor practices – Health and safety
10 = Labor practices – Equal and fair treatment
11 = Local community engagement
Under “Additional sections covered by the certificate,” CBs can choose the additional modules their registered producers implement in the scope of CFM certification.
Produce Handling Assurance: Technical news
We would like to inform you that Agraya has submitted IFA v6.1 GFS, Harmonized Produce Safety (HPS) version 2, and Product Handling Assurance (PHA) version 2 to the GFSI re-benchmarking process in order to continue GFSI recognition. This update was prompted by the release of the GFSI v2024 benchmarking requirements.
IFA v6.1 GFS, HPS v2, and PHA v2 will not be released to the public until recognition is obtained. The current versions – IFA v6 GFS, HPSS v1.2, and PHA v1.2 – remain valid until the GFSI benchmarking process is completed. Once new versions are published, there will be a transition period before they replace IFA v6 GFS, HPSS v1.2, and PHA v1.2.
Agraya will automatically grant provisional approval for IFA v6.1 GFS, HPS v2, and PHA v2 for the respective scope to every CB approved for the respective standard as soon as the benchmarking process is completed successfully. HPS v2 and PHA v2 will require additional CB training.
After the recent GFSI office assessment, we would like to remind CBs to clearly document all requirements of ISO/IEC 17065 and IAF MD4 relating to personnel and make them known to their staff. This shall include systems and procedures to ensure that all auditors conducting assessments against GLOBALG.A.P. standards meet the capabilities described in ISO/IEC 17065, and the requirements of IAF MD4.
Previously communicated on 4 September 2025.
In response to challenges onboarding new auditors, this update addresses lead audit experience requirements.
Produce Handling Assurance (PHA) version 1.2-1, Annex III.2, section 2.1 requires a minimum of 10 days in management systems. PHA v2 additionally includes: “Practical auditing experience of at least 10 GLOBALG.A.P. Option 1 CB farm audits (IFA or Harmonized Produce Safety (HPS) for FV, CC, hops (HOP)) including a product handling unit audit are alternatively accepted instead of the above requirement.”
We have already drafted, received public comment on, and approved this change to expand the qualification and therefore are implementing the change immediately, including for auditors that apply for PHA version 1.2-1.
Previous wording:
3.1 Lead assessor training
a) Practical auditing experience of minimum 10 days in management systems (e.g.: ISO 9000, ISO 14000, ISO 22000, OSHAS 18000, BRC Food, IFS Food, SQF, PrimusGFS, previous GLOBALG.A.P. Option 2 or Option 4, FSSC 22000 Feed), or PHA (this standard). This does not include witnessing or observing of audits but includes being witnessed or observed as auditor-in-training.
Change in v2, effective now:
13.3.1 Lead auditor training and auditing experience
a) Lead auditors shall have practical auditing experience of at least 10 days (audit days as described in the currently valid version of IAF MD5) in management systems (e.g., ISO/IEC 9000, ISO/IEC 14000, ISO/IEC 22000, OSHAS 18000, BRC Food, IFS Food, SQF, PrimusGFS, previous GLOBALG.A.P. Option 2 or Option 4 standards, FSSC 22000 Feed) or PHA (this standard). This does not include witnessing or observing audits but includes being witnessed or observed as a CB auditor-in-training.
Practical auditing experience of at least 10 GLOBALG.A.P. Option 1 CB farm audits (IFA or HPS FV, CC, HOP) including a product handling unit audit are alternatively accepted instead of the above requirement.
In addition, the GLOBALG.A.P. CB Academy offered an English-language course for PHA v1.2-1 on 21–23 October 2025. If you have any technical questions, please send an email to standard_support@agraya.com.
Harmonized Produce Safety Standard: Technical news
We would like to inform you that Agraya has submitted IFA v6.1 GFS, Harmonized Produce Safety (HPS) version 2, and Product Handling Assurance (PHA) version 2 to the GFSI re-benchmarking process in order to continue GFSI recognition. This update was prompted by the release of the GFSI v2024 benchmarking requirements.
IFA v6.1 GFS, HPS v2, and PHA v2 will not be released to the public until recognition is obtained. The current versions – IFA v6 GFS, HPSS v1.2, and PHA v1.2 – remain valid until the GFSI benchmarking process is completed. Once new versions are published, there will be a transition period before they replace IFA v6 GFS, HPSS v1.2, and PHA v1.2.
Agraya will automatically grant provisional approval for IFA v6.1 GFS, HPS v2, and PHA v2 for the respective scope to every CB approved for the respective standard as soon as the benchmarking process is completed successfully. HPS v2 and PHA v2 will require additional CB training.
After the recent GFSI office assessment, we would like to remind CBs to clearly document all requirements of ISO/IEC 17065 and IAF MD4 relating to personnel and make them known to their staff. This shall include systems and procedures to ensure that all auditors conducting assessments against GLOBALG.A.P. standards meet the capabilities described in ISO/IEC 17065, and the requirements of IAF MD4.
Previously communicated on 2 May 2024
We would like to remind you that according to the HPSS general regulations, section 5.2.3 d), “for producers with high-risk products, at least 20% of the inspections of the selected producer members or production sites shall be unannounced.” Also, according to the HPSS general regulations section 5.3.2.1 g), “at least 25% of the square root sample of the actual number of sites or producers shall be randomly selected,” and section 5.2.3 e), “the 25% of the selected producer members or sites shall be selected randomly.”
We hereby ask you to indicate in the audit reports which producer group members/production sites were randomly selected and audited unannounced, following the requirements above.
Crops for Processing: Technical news
As communicated at the time that the Crops for Processing (CfP) standard was launched, CBs shall be finally approved for IFA v5.2 FV and provisionally approved for IFA v5.2 CC.
With IFA v6 Smart, CBs are approved per scope rather than product category.
CBs applying for approval for CfP must be finally approved for IFA v6 Smart for the plants scope.
Accordingly, CB auditors must also be approved for IFA v6 Smart for the plants scope.
TR4 Biosecurity Standard: Technical news
News items from technical news editions published in Q4 2023 and beyond are published here. Please check the document center for technical news editions published prior to this.
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