Work on the QS scheme “Fresh Fruit and Vegetables” will be continued

Joint statement by the working group

The representatives of the QS working group “Fresh Fruit and Vegetables” have spoken out in favor of continuing the integration of the fruit and vegetables product area into QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH. This is the result of the deliberations of representatives of the Federal Committee for Fruit and Vegetables, the Federal Association of Producer Organizations for Fruit and Vegetables, the food retail trade and the CMA on January 12, 2004 in Hamburg. The QS management has agreed to continue to support the work of the fruit and vegetable sector.

In contrast, the representatives of the German Fruit Trade Association and the Federal Association of German Fruit Trade Companies decided in December not to pursue the work on the QS scheme “Fresh Fruit and Vegetables” for the time being. The members of the working group regret this decision, especially since the previous joint development of the QS system for this product area was constructive and future-oriented. The working group will continue to inform the two associations about the progress of the work and is open to continuation of the successful cooperation at any time.

In December, the QS shareholders' meeting officially adopted the guidelines for the production, fruit trade and food retail stages of the QS scheme "Fresh Fruit and Vegetables". The next steps are now to define the criteria for the recognition of residue monitoring systems, to carry out the training for the producers and to organize the coordinating system at the production level.

Another central point is the mutual recognition with EUREPGAP and other standards, as well as the inclusion of important supplier countries, especially the Netherlands and Belgium. Discussions are already being held with industry representatives in the federal states.

The working group has spoken out in favor of forming an integrated working group “Fresh fruit and vegetables and table potatoes” with the table potatoes product area in the future. Experts from the stages of potato production and wholesale will in future represent the product area in the working group.

The specialist commission for quality assurance and trade issues of UNIKA (Union of the German Potato Industry), with the support of QS, had done the relevant preliminary work in the previous months and developed guidelines for the production and wholesale of table potatoes.

Source: Berlin [dbv]