Product safety

Our companies apply stringent food safety policies and procedures, which meet the highest international standards.

Product safety starts where products are made or grown. We require our private label product suppliers to follow proper product safety practices and to demonstrate compliance with internationally accepted standards, and we support them in making improvements.

Our companies apply stringent food safety policies and procedures that meet the highest international standards. We provide our employees with extensive communication and training on product safety. We have established appropriate recall procedures and respond rapidly to crisis situations. Many of our companies have implemented food safety standards in their logistics and store operations. In order to achieve continuous improvement in the way we manage food safety, compliance with these standards is assessed on a regular basis by qualified auditors. We have introduced clearer food allergen labeling on our products in response to customer concerns and legal requirements.

Ahold has been the first global retailer to specify acceptance of any food safety certification endorsed by the GFSI for our suppliers of private label food products. In addition, we also require GlobalGAP certification as an assurance of appropriate food safety management at farm level.

In Europe, we are implementing the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Consumer Products certification for private label suppliers of higher risk non-food products. In the United States, we are implementing a strict third-party testing program for high risk non-food private label products.

We are continually seeking improvement in product safety. Under the supervision of our Product Safety Steering Committee, a single compliance model has been developed at Ahold and it was implemented in 2007 to further standardize the way we manage food safety. Based on this experience, we are putting in place a similar compliance model to manage the safety of non-food goods.