Our standards
Supplier standards are continually monitored through internal quality and QA assessments and external analysis
Supplier Management
All suppliers to G's Fresh must comply with the business's exacting quality and safety standards before supply commences. This is achieved through the collection of technical data on the supplier's systems and standards and is followed-up by audits and visits from the G's Fresh Team. Supplier standards are continually monitored through internal quality and QA assessments and external analysis (including evaluation pesticide residues and microbial contamination levels).
Farm Assurance
Good farming practice is key to ensuring that crops produced and supplied by G's Fresh meet high standards of food safety and environmental protection, whilst delivering excellent quality products to consumers. The farming systems are regularly reviewed by the G's Fresh Technical Team and the different sites also comply with of a number of assurance protocols:
- All Shropshire Group UK farms have Assured Produce accreditation
- All Shropshire Group overseas farms have GLOBALGAP accreditation
- Third party suppliers will normally have either Assured Produce or GLOBAL GAP accreditation
- All Shropshire Group farms and selected third party farms have Tesco Nurture accreditation. Annual audits are carried out on these farms by CMi to demonstrate compliance with the Nurture standard.
- All Shropshire Group farms are fully compliant with the Marks & Spencer Field to Fork protocol. Each site is assessed in a regular audit which is conducted by the G's Fresh Technical every 1-2 years depending of the risk group of the crops that are being produced. Audits are also carried out by the G's Fresh Technical Team on selected third party suppliers in both the UK and overseas to ensure compliance against the F2F standard.
Organic certification
The UK organic products supplied by G's Fresh are certified under either the Soil Association certification scheme or the Organic Farmers and Growers certification scheme, both of which ensures full compliance with UK and EU organic standards. Overseas suppliers must also operate to the same standards and will be certified by their local organic accreditation body or one of the UK accreditation bodies. Each site needs to pass an annual audit against the relevant organic standard and this is completed by a third party inspector. The organic accreditation process ensures that products are fully compliant with the current organic standards from seed through to the consumer and this includes all growing, packing and processing stages.
Environmental Assurance
G's Fresh is committed to working with suppliers that are able to demonstrate awareness of environmental issues and attempt to use resources as efficiently as possible and minimise the impact of their production operations on the wider environment.
- Shropshire Group UK farms and selected Shropshire Group overseas sites and third party supplier's farms have LEAF accreditation - www.leafuk.org/leafuk . The annual third party leaf audits are carried out by approved auditors in the UK and overseas.
- Some sites have additional environmental assurance such as compliance with the internationally recognised environmental management standard ISO 14001.
- Minimisation of energy and water use is a key target for G's Fresh and the business has supported a range of initiatives in this area. Carbon footprints have been completed for a number of the Group's operations by Footprints4Food and reduction plans are now being established for each operation. This work is part of the overall activity of the Group which is aiming to achieve a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
- G's Fresh follows a clear programme to manage inputs based on the hierarchy: reduce, re-use, recycle and is supported by a number of organisations in this work such as the Carbon Trust, Envirowise and WRAP.
Good Manufacturing Practice
Food safety is one of the key technical pillars of the G's Fresh business and the Technical Team works very closely with all parts of the supply chain from seed to shelf in the delivery of safe products. This technical effort is supported by a number of standards and schemes:
- All production sites and field-based rig operations involved with processing, packing and dispatch of finished products are accredited to the British Retail Consortium standard. This includes an annual third party audit against the BRC protocol with audits being conducted by Bodycote in the UK and locally approved BRC auditors overseas. All Shropshire Group production sites have now achieved higher level accreditation.
- Some of the sites supplying G's Fresh also comply with the Global Food Safety Initiative standard.
- All suppliers of food-contact packaging to G's Fresh must operate to the BRC packaging standards and this is supported by third party audit wherever possible.
- The G's Fresh Technical Team ensures that all sites operate to the specific in-house standards demanded by its retail customers such as the Tesco Food Manufacturing Standard, the Sainsbury's Food Hygiene standard and the Marks & Spencer Field to Fork standard and all of these are verified through audits.
Social Responsibility
G's Fresh fully supports its customer's desires to ensure the fair treatment of labour in all production operations and this extends to third party suppliers.
- All our sites and grower partners (both in the UK and overseas) are required to complete an annual self-assessment questionnaire on the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX) system (www.sedex.org.uk) which covers a range of issues related to responsible labour management. The information supplied by these sites is then made available to customers and other interested parties through the SEDEX database.
- Third party SEDEX members' ethical trading audits (SMETAs) have been completed by Keith Stamp Associates to demonstrate compliance with this Code. These detailed audits are also made available through the SEDEX database.
- G's Fresh is a registered B member of SEDEX and it manages compliance of all the supply sites through this system
Relationships
G's Fresh takes great pride with the close relationships that exist with its suppliers and the wider community. These relationships are built on high levels of trust and technical integrity and are supported through the frequent exchange of ideas and views. This helps to ensure that the G's Fresh supply base operates to the highest possible industry standard and remains at the forefront of industry innovation. This is further supported by the technical relationships with key stakeholders and partners in a range of horticultural, food production and research organisations including: