NSF Opens Costa Rica Office

SAN JOSÉ, Costa RicaNSF International opened an office in Costa Rica to provide food safety auditing, certification, consulting and training services to growers, manufacturers, suppliers and retailers. NSF Costa Rica will help businesses meet new global food safety regulatory requirements, food safety certification services and sustainability solutions.

Food exports from Latin America and the Caribbean comprise $66 billion or 12 percent of the worlds total food trade. This figure could increase rapidly over the coming decades if food safety and quality standards are improved, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Safeguarding the worlds food supply requires collaboration among the government and the entire food industry, including retailers and manufacturers and third-party auditing bodies.

With offices throughout North and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific and now Central America, we are well positioned to help international clients as they source food products from Latin America. We look forward to expanding our services in this area to the produce, organic, seafood, manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors, said Tom Chestnut, NSF International vice president of food safety and quality.

Included among NSF Internationals services is certification to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked standards. This is essential as several of the worlds largest food companies have chosen to mandate compliance with one of the GFSI-benchmarked standards, including British Retail Consortium (BRC), Safe Quality Food (SQF), GlobalGAP (Good Agricultural Practices), International Food Standard (IFS) and Food Safety System Certification (FSSC). NSFs sustainability services, such as greenhouse gas verification, carbon footprinting and environmental management systems registration, will also be offered.

Our NSF Costa Rica office will enable NSF to better serve the growing number of processors and manufacturers in Latin America who are exporting their products to the United States," said Kevan P. Lawlor, NSF International president and CEO. The new office will also help businesses in Central America and the Caribbean meet the increasing demand for food safety and certification services in this region.