In 2011, the American administration under the presidency of Barack Obama issued the package of 7 regulations on food safety which goes by the name of FSMA, Food Safety Modernization Act.
Among these regulations, one concerns the Third-party program , i.e. the voluntary third-party certification of foreign companies with respect to the USA , which makes it possible to give greater guarantees to American importers in terms of food safety.
This voluntary certification is "combined", in fact, with the program called VQIP (Voluntary Qualified Importer Program) which allows American importers to have a faster process of entry of goods into customs , together with a reduction in the number of analyzes at customs.
The CSQA scheme , called Third-Party Certification Program (TPCP) , is based on the verification of compliance with the regulation on Preventive Controls For Human Food (21 CFR 117) and the regulation Produce Safety Rule (21 CFR 112).
CSQA is the first European organization to obtain accreditation from ANAB / ANSI , the main US accreditation body.
This accreditation is strategic for Italian companies because it allows them to have a competitive tool against those importers who have already decided to use the VQIP system as an import system , first of all Costco Wholesale , and to aim for all new importers who decide to adopt the same program.
The scheme does not apply to meat and meat-based products, alcoholic beverages and egg products.