NCSI Americas delivers first two pilot audits for the Harmonized Standard

The Harmonized standard effort has received a major kick along, with NCSI Americas recently delivering the first two audits against this standard.

With the standard currently in a published draft form, United Fresh has been pushing for pilot audits to be conducted against volunteer organizations. Bluebird, a growing and packing operation in Washington state, has been kind enough to volunteer two of their sites for the pilot audits to go ahead.

The audits proceeded smoothly, and several areas for improvement in the GAP standard have been identified.

Ideally now other certification bodies and produce organizations will also help in piloting the standard.

The Harmonized GAP standard is a combined industry effort to merge all existing produce standards into one, making it easily accessible and accepted by the USDA and all retailers.