October 2014 Dear Valued Suppliers

October 2014
Dear Valued Suppliers
The following communication explains, in detail, Sysco/FreshPoint’s produce food safety requirements.
Sysco/FreshPoint’s collaboration with Azzule has been an integral part of Sysco’s food safety efforts for
all areas of high risk produce products since 2007.
Outlined below are the existing produce food safety requirements for Sysco/FreshPoint and
changes to the existing requirements, which will be effective October 1, 2014.
These mandatory requirements extend to all fresh produce items regardless of brand or label. Your
cooperation and compliance is expected in order to begin or continue doing business with Sysco-owned
companies.
I.
Existing requirements of the Sysco/FreshPoint produce food safety program:
A. All suppliers of high-risk Ready to Eat (RTE) produce products must demonstrate
compliance with Sysco/FreshPoint’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) requirements
through successful completion of a GAP audit conducted by an approved Third Party Auditing
Agency. The supplier must provide third party GAP audits for every high-risk RTE produce
item they supply to Sysco/FreshPoint.
For a complete list of approved Independent Third Party Auditing Agencies and high-risk RTE
produce products requiring a GAP audit please refer to Appendix 1 and 2, respectively.
B. All producers of high risk items such as deli salads, fresh cut fruits and vegetables,
and sprout operations must demonstrate compliance with Sysco/FreshPoint’s third
party Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) audit requirements by having an approved
Third Party Audit completed for each facility (For a complete list of approved Independent
Third Party Auditing Agencies and high-risk RTE deli salad, fresh cut fruits and vegetables
and sprout products requiring a GMP audit please refer to Appendix 1 and 3, respectively).
Sprout operations see point V.
C. Both GAP and GMP points-based audits require a minimum score of 90% (All audits
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performed prior to January 6 2014 scoring 85% or greater will be treated as compliant.)
D. Complete, valid GAP/GMP audits must be transferred to the Azzule-managed
Sysco/FreshPoint website. Suppliers must provide updated audits every 12 months – with
a three month grace period - in order to maintain their compliance. Only compliant
suppliers will be allowed to conduct business with any Sysco-owned company.
II.
What changes are being made to these requirements, and how will this affect me, a valued
produce supplier to a Sysco-owned company?
A. Audit timelines for acceptance will be changing from 18 months (GAP) and 13 months
(GMP) to 12 months - with a three month grace period - to allow for the audit certification
process to be completed.
B. All produce packing sheds, cooling/distribution facilities, produce repacking and
further processed facilities are now required to demonstrate full compliance with
Sysco/FreshPoint’s third party Good Manufacturing Practices requirements (For a
complete list of approved Independent Third Party Auditing Agencies and products/facilities
requiring a GMP audit please refer to Appendix 1 and 3, respectively).
III.
How do I transfer my audits to the Sysco/Freshpoint website?
Instructions for how to achieve full compliance with Sysco/FreshPoint’s produce requirements via
Azzule are available at the following link: http://www.azzule.com/Services/Instructions.aspx
A. Log in to your Azzule Supply Chain Program Account.

Complete the registration process by simply clicking on the link below:
https://secure.azzule.com/SupplyChain/SupplierRegistration/SupplierRegistration.aspx
Approval Key: %Approval Key%
Please use the above approval key where designated on the registration form.
* Please note that the administrative team at Azzule will have to finalize the registration process before you
receive your username and password via email.

If you have forgotten your log in details, please use the password recovery function:
https://secure.azzule.com/SupplyChain/SupplierRegistration/PassRecovery.aspx
B. Use the Azzule Supply Chain Program to locate, upload/retrieve, and send audits to the
Sysco/Freshpoint website.

Once logged into your Azzule Supply Chain Program site, you will be able to see what
audits, if any, are available in your archive. If you have identified that audits are missing
from your archive, you will need to obtain them using one or more of the following
methods:
1) Verify that all Primus Labs, PrimusGFS, and/or NSF Agriculture audits of yours are
available in your archive. These audits should be transferred to your Azzule archive
by the certification body.
2) For audits belonging to your vendors/growers, you may “retrieve” the report(s) by
adding your supplier to your Azzule supply chain, and retrieving the audit. You can
also request that your vendor/grower send the audit(s) to you via the Azzule Supply
Chain Program. If they are not already registered, they can do so by contacting
securesites@azzule.com.
*Please note: if a supplier has a Primus Labs, PrimusGFS, and/or NSF Agriculture
audit you need to submit to Sysco/FreshPoint, it will need to be obtained via Azzule,
rather than manually uploaded, as described in the third option:
3) Under certain conditions you may “upload” the audit as a PDF file.
This is a temporary allowance. PDF format is accepted for: BRC Global Standard
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for Food Safety, CanadaGAP (GFSI options), GlobalG.A.P. and SQF (2000 and 7
Edition). Azzule and Sysco will notify your company when this temporary allowance
changes.
IV.
Once you have the audits assembled on your site, the final step is to transfer them to
Sysco/FreshPoint using the “send” function in the Supply Chain Program.
V.
Sprout Operations:

All operations providing product to Sysco-owned companies are required to have a
current GMP with HACCP audit.

Audits must achieve scores of 90% or greater for points scored audit schemes from an
approved third party auditing agency of Sysco/FreshPoint.

Suppliers are responsible for maintaining audit compliance at all times ensuring all GMP with
HACCP audits are current and transferred to the Sysco/FreshPoint GAP website
For a complete list of approved third party auditing agencies please refer to Appendix 1.
Website support: Contact securesites@azzule.com if you have questions about registering and using
the Azzule Supply Chain Program.
You have 30 days from receipt of this notification to become fully compliant with the requirements
stated above. Sysco/FreshPoint Quality Assurance realizes that it may take some time for your company
to schedule and complete the required GAP/GMP audits. If your company needs extra time to obtain and
complete all the required audits deemed necessary to demonstrate full compliance of your program, you
must provide Sysco/FreshPoint QA with an expected time frame for those audits to be completed and
have it approved by Sysco/FreshPoint QA. Your company cannot be set up as an approved
Sysco/FreshPoint corporate vendor until all required GAP and/or GMP audits for the items you will be
selling to our companies have been successfully transferred to the Sysco/Freshpoint website. Failure to
comply within the agreed upon timeline will result in Sysco/FreshPoint De-Authorizing your company as
an approved Sysco/FreshPoint vendor.
Please direct all technical questions concerning this Sysco/FreshPoint program to:
Dave Podesta, Senior Manager Quality Assurance Produce, (480) 403-4850
Saul Morales, Director of Quality Assurance Produce, (831) 759-3352
Shane Sampels, Director of Quality Assurance FreshPoint, (281) 584-1313
Sincerely,
Mark Mignogna
Vice President, Quality Assurance
Rich Dachman
Vice President, Produce
APPENDIX 1
Each audit will demonstrate 100% compliance for those questions that comprise the Critical
Food Safety section of the audit and 90% compliance on all other sections/questions. (All audits
performed prior to January 6th 2014 scoring 85% or greater will continue to be treated as
compliant.)
The following audit formats have been approved and meet the requirements of Sysco’s
GAP & GMP Audit Program:
AIB International
Leslie Ackerman
E-mail: LAckerman@aibonline.org
Phone: 785-537-4750, Fax: 785-537-0106
BRC Global Standard for Food Safety*
Thomas Owen
E-mail: enquiries@brcglobalstandards.com
Phone: +44 20 7854 8939
CanadaGAP* (GFSI recognized options)
Heather Gale
E-mail: offs@hortcouncil.ca
Phone: (613) 226-4880, ext. 215
GLOBALG.A.P.* (IFA and PSS)
Elmé Coetzer
E-mail: coetzer@globalgap.org
Tel/Fax: +27 (0) 12 991 51 39
NSF Agriculture
Eileen Chase
E-mail: echase@nsf.org
Phone: 831-740-4170
NSF Guelph Food Technology Center
Soula Ringas
E-mail: sringas@gftc.ca
Phone: 519-821-1246 ext. 503
PrimusGFS*
Rebecca Burnworth
E-mail: primusgfs@azzule.com
Phone: 805-264-9043
PrimusLabs
Debra Garrison
E-mail: debra.garrison@primuslabs.com
Phone: 805-922-0055, Fax: 805-922-2462
SAI Global
Violet Masoud
E-mail: certification.americas@saiglobal.com
Phone: 877-426-0714
Scientific Certification Systems, Inc.
Heena Patel
E-mail: hpatel@scscertified.com
Phone: 510-452-8024, Fax: 510-452-8001
Silliker, Inc.
Todd Dechter
E-mail: todd.dechter@silliker.com
Phone: 708-957-7878, Fax: 708-957-8405
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SQF Institute* (SQF 2000 & SQF 7 Edition)
Leann Chuboff
E-mail: info@sqfi.com
Phone: 202-220-0635, Fax: 202-429-4519
United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA)
Ken Petersen
E-mail: ken.petersen@usda.gov
Phone: 202-720-4560
* BRC Global Standard For Food Safety, CanadaGAP, GlobalG.A.P, PrimusGFS and SQF audits can be
completed by any certification body accredited to conduct these GFSI audits.
Appendix 2 - GAP Products
All high-risk, fresh, ready-to-eat, organic, transitional, & conventional
produce, both whole and fresh-cut (value added):
*following list is not comprehensive
All Berries
All Broccoli
All Cauliflower
All Cabbage
All Celery
All Chard
All Cucumbers
All Green Onions
All Fresh Herbs
All Lettuce & Salad
All Melons
All Micro Greens
All Mushrooms
All Peppers
All Spinach
All Summer Squash (for example Zucchini)
All Tomatoes
Appendix 3 - GMP Products
All high-risk deli salads, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, and sprouts –
including all produce packing sheds, cooling/distribution facilities,
produce repacking, and further processed facilities
*following list is not comprehensive
All Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables
All Deli Salads (potatoes, macaroni, coleslaw, etc…)
All Apples and Pears
All Avocadoes
All Beets
All Berries
All Broccoli
All Brussels Sprouts
All Cabbage
All Carrots
All Cauliflower
All Celery
All Chard
All Citrus (Grapefruit, Lemons, Limes, Oranges, Tangerines, etc…)
All Cucumbers
All Eggplant
All Fresh Herbs
All Grapes
All Green Beans
All Green Onions
All Jicama
All Lettuce & Salad
All Mangoes
All Melons
All Micro Greens
All Mushrooms
All Onions
All Papaya
All Peas
All Peppers
All Pineapple
All Potatoes
All Radishes
All Rutabaga
All Salad
All Salsa
All Spinach
All Squash
All Sprouts (*GMP audit w/ HACCP required)
All Stone Fruit (Apricots, Cherries, Nectarines, Peaches, Plums and all hybrids, etc…)
All Tomatoes