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Wal-Mart Stores has announced that it has become the first US grocery chain to require suppliers to have factories certified against the Global Food Safety Initiative standards.

Factories supplying the US superstore's private label and other food products such as produce, meat, fish, poultry and ready-to-eat foods will be expected to meet the standard.

According to Wal-Mart, Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a group of international retailers, now lists Wal-Mart among the companies which have agreed to improve food safety through a higher and consistent auditing standard. Wal-Mart said that under the GFSI program, producers of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club private label and other foods sold in the US must be audited by independently trained, approved and licensed auditors who are experts in their industry. The GFSI requires food suppliers to achieve factory audit certification against one of its recognized standards, which include Safe Quality Food (SQF), British Retail Consortium (BRC), International Food Standard (IFS) or an equivalent such as Global-GAP.

Wal-Mart Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer JP Suarez, also board member of the GFSI, said: "We are taking this additional step to ensure the integrity of our products throughout the entire food supply chain. We encourage other US retailers to follow our lead and to also endorse these standards."