Poland fourth on the GMP+ country list
The interest for GMP+ feed safety certification is steady increasing in Poland. Most of the current GMP+ certified companies are involved in road transport, inland waterway transport, trade and production of feed materials. A limited number of pre-mixture and compound producers is also certified.
In collaboration with interested companies, GMP+ International has established a Polish working group to focus on specific country related issues and with opportunities to improve participation of Polish feed companies.
On 10th November 2011, GMP+ International organized a seminar in Poznan, Poland, with about 100 participants, representing all links in the Polish feed chain.
At this moment, about 330 Polish companies are GMP+ certified. This results in the fourth place on the GMP+ country list, right behind the top 3: Germany, The Netherlands and Czech Republic.
The participants expressed the wish that more Polish feed companies should participate in order to express accountability for assuring the feed safety and to show compliance with EU regulations regarding feed safety. It is necessary to increase awareness.
Case study
One of the speakers during the GMP+ seminar was Rafal Giec, Quality & Nutrition Manager of Cehave Pasze.
He spoke of his experience during application of GMP+ certification, which finished with a good result last May 2011. Direct reason for GMP+ certification is sale of their compound feed to Germany.
GMP+ certification gives added value to ISO and HACCP certification, while ISO and HACCP were good step stones.
The added value is that the company cooperates only with the most respectful partners in the supply chain and the highest requirements for feed materials and production process results in the highest quality compound feed.
The test with micro tracers resulted to better homogeneity and almost no carry over on production lines.
Giec valued the EWS (early warning system) also as great tool to maintain the highest product standards.
Road transport
Another speaker was Andrzej Tomczak, GMP Expert at Agro Brokers. His company promotes the implementation of GMP+ for road transport strongly.
The uniformity contributes to clarity and unambiguousness, which is important, because it is about transporting food and feed.
GMP+ certification raises also awareness of employees and employers about possible risks. It enlarges market opportunities and provides a good control instrument, he argued.
From GMP+ International’s side, Dik Wolters informed the participants about the developments of the GMP+ FSA scheme and the Feed Safety Database. Dali Brkulic gave a presentation about the GMP+ standard for transport.
Specific Polish issues
During the plenary discussion, a lot of questions were raised about how to apply GMP+ requirements in the specific situation in the Polish market. Partly, they could be addressed.
Johan den Hartog, Managing Director of GMP+ International announced to establish a Polish working group to address specific issues and situations in the Polish feed industry.
Leading feed companies will participate in this working group, which will identify challenges and opportunities to improve the participation of more Polish feed companies in the GMP+ FSA scheme.
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