Article
5 steps to prepare for GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody
By Caoilinn O’kelly
Mar 31, 2026
Key takeaways
Understand that GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody certification ensures supply‐chain transparency, traceability, and prevents mixing certified with non-certified products.
Be ready for audits by ensuring you source from certified suppliers and maintain identifiable, separated, traceable certified products.
Implement a system to capture and validate GGN codes from suppliers efficiently before products arrive.
Use the official GLOBALG.A.P. self-assessment checklist to verify your company meets all Chain of Custody certification requirements.
5 steps to prepare for GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody
An increasing number of supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl are making the GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody (GG CoC) certificate compulsory as of 1-1-2022. This change will affect companies that package or trade GLOBALG.A.P. certified products. As many Agriplace Chain users need to prepare for GG CoC, we decided to make a list of 5 things that will help you prepare for GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody.
Stay informed
To get started, it is good to get to know what Chain of Custody exactly is. The certification Chain of Custody focuses mainly on transparency of the supply chain and product traceability. Next to that, it also helps to prevent GLOBALG.A.P.-certified products from being mixed with or substituted for non-GG certified products. To start learning regarding the certification please click here to find the Chain of Custody guide from GLOBALG.A.P.
Prepare for compliance
A certification body will inspect/audit your company to ensure that among other things:
You are purchasing GLOBALG.A.P. certified products from a certified supplier. Certified products are clearly identifiable to you when they arrive and to customers when they receive them. Certified products are traceable, separated from non-certified ones and volumes recorded; and you have an effective management system in place for this.You have guides and ways of working in place to ensure you comply with the Chain of Custody regulation. Ensure you check that suppliers comply with any additional requirements on a GGN label e.g. GRASP.
Start a process for quickly validating GLOBAL G.A.P. numbers
An important part of achieving your CoC certification is having a system in place which helps you easily record and check GGN codes. With AgriPlace Chain users can easily introduce or collect GGN codes from suppliers before the product arrives. The system then automatically checks the status and generates the GLOBALG.A.P. documents related to it, such as Chain of Custody, IFA and GRASP. After introducing a GGN once, GLOBALG.A.P. information is always up to date.
Have a central place to store supplier & internal documents
For Chain of Custody, an increasing amount of information needs to be collected from suppliers, it is important to have all these documents stored properly and available at all times when an auditor requests them. This eases the process of the audit, ideally, a system is set up which gives you quick insight into the information that is missing. In Agriplace Chain, supplier & internal documents can easily be stored and automatically collected, the system gives you and partners quick insight in case information is missing.
Complete the checklist
To see how your company is doing regarding the demands from Chain of Custody, it is good to check the do it yourself checklist from GlobalGAP. With this checklist, you can exactly see if your company fits the requirements of the Chain of Custody certification. To get the full checklist, please click here.If you would like to receive more information on how our system could help you prepare for Chain of Custody contact us on: info@simvia.com
