Map the crop and production location through harvesting, collection, transport, receipt, sorting, washing where used, packing, storage and dispatch. Identify which operator and site performs each step, including external work. A farm certificate, a packhouse address and a finished-food certification are different scope questions; one document must not be assumed to cover every operation.
Discuss your scopeFAO’s GHP guidance links primary production and subsequent handling to control of relevant contamination risks. The operator needs real evidence for staff hygiene, equipment and container cleanliness, suitable water where relevant, product handling and applicable storage conditions. A clean-looking crate or a final test alone does not establish the whole process is controlled.
Keep the actual harvest source, date, incoming quantity, sorting losses, packing run and dispatch connected through meaningful lot records. Identify the packaging used and relevant food-contact information. Mixing supply from different farms or changing the process needs an honest scope and traceability review, not just a new label.
Hypothetically, a packhouse formerly sorts and packs whole carrots, but now peels and cuts them for ready-to-eat packs at an external site. Disclose the new site and processing steps, review the actual hygiene and hazard-control evidence and ask the relevant body which assessment scope is needed. An old whole-carrot farm document or a packaging-material supplier’s certificate does not automatically cover the ready-to-eat operation.
The operator implements controls and records findings, corrections and responsible product decisions. For an external request, specify the applicable programme, sites, products, operations and intended output. A harvest or packing check is not itself a universally recognised standalone certificate, and agricultural certification must not replace applicable food-business duties.
QRS can review the requested activity’s actual scope, authority and independence before acceptance. Its published policy establishes impartiality requirements, not approval for every agricultural or food programme. It does not authorise management-system consultancy or client-specific implementation solutions. Any assessment and certification decision must follow the actual accepted route rather than a general promise of safe product or guaranteed certification.
No. Declare actual sites and operations and confirm the relevant scope.
No. Its material scope is a different question.
No. The actual process and required controls need evidence.
Use the guides to explore scope and practical questions in this field and find the detail relevant to your situation.
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Share your activity, product, workforce, sites and target date. The QRS team will review your needs and clarify a practical process and quotation scope.
Provide the real harvest-to-dispatch flow and changed operations so the assessment route and evidence can be checked.
