GMP+ International Managing Director Martine Boon brings extensive experience in feed safety, sustainability, and agrifood transition to the global feed industry. Before joining GMP+ International in 2024, she held leadership roles at Rabobank, where she focused on agricultural sustainability, food systems, and future-ready agribusiness strategies.Under her leadership, GMP+ International continues to strengthen its position as one of the world’s leading feed certification schemes, promoting safe, sustainable, and transparent feed supply chains across global markets. With growing emphasis on proactive risk management, harmonised sustainability standards, and practical industry solutions, she has been driving initiatives that help feed businesses navigate evolving regulatory and market expectations.In this interaction with Think Grain Think Feed, Martine Boon shares her perspective on global feed safety challenges, sustainability trends, the evolving regulatory landscape, and how the newly introduced Feed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standard can support the industry in moving from compliance-driven approaches toward data-backed, proactive feed risk and sustainability management.
To begin with, could you provide a brief overview of GMP+ International, its key activities, and its footprint in India?
GMP+ International is the world’s largest scheme for safe and sustainable animal feed. Our mission is to enable every company in the feed chain to take responsibility for working in a safe and sustainable way. The GMP+ Feed Certification (GMP+ FC) scheme offers uniform international standards to produce safe feed, and a growing set of international standards for sustainable feed. Our standards cover the whole feed chain, from production and trade to transhipment and transport, to processing and storage. Our footprint in India is relatively small but sees potential. With a majority of certifications in productions of feed materials, and with increasing demand for protein and poultry as a fast-growing segment, the demand for feed safety and sustainability certifications is also most likely to increase.
In India, there are approximately 160 GMP+ FSA–certified companies, more than 75% of which are involved in the production of feed materials and trade.
As a globally recognised certification scheme, what differentiates the GMP+ Feed Certification system from other feed safety standards?
The GMP+ Feed certification scheme is a chain approach for feed safety and sustainability. It covers the whole supply chain with an international standard from production and trade to transhipment and transport, to processing and storage. GMP+ goes beyond compliance by offering practical, risk-based standards, strong international network acceptance, and continuous collaboration with the feed industry to address emerging market and regulatory needs.
Feed safety remains a critical concern globally. What are the key and emerging risks in the feed sector, particularly in the Indian context, and how is GMP+ addressing these challenges?
Due to increasing global population, there is a growing demand for food and therefore feed. This puts pressure on cultivation resources. Effects of deforestation and land conversion are widely contributing to imbalance of natural ecosystems. Climate change and extreme weather conditions increase crop diseases and have a possible effect on contamination. The need for clear independent assurance is growing in all relevant global markets and specific in India rapid urbanisation and rising incomes are shifting diets towards meat, eggs and poultry. This directly drives demand for compound and high-quality safe and sustainable feed.
Feed safety risks today are becoming more complex and interconnected. In the Indian context, challenges include mycotoxin contamination due to climate and storage conditions, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and increasing supply chain complexity.
How does the regulatory environment across different regions influence feed safety implementation, and how does GMP+ ensure consistency in compliance across diverse markets?
There are both increases and decreases in various regulations especially in the EU. Increased legislation is mainly experienced on Feed / Food sustainability (EUDR) and corporate sustainability (CSRD, CSDDD, PPWR, etc.) The EUDR leads to increase of administrative actions on traceability, setting local legislation and reporting. These accompany additional costs throughout the supply chain. The recent EU proposal on allowing NGT-1 as non-GMO is an example reducing the stringency of feed safety legislation. As an international scheme holder, we keep close track on local developments and one of the core scheme requirements for certification is companies who want to get certified must always comply with (local) legislation.
Different regions have different regulatory priorities, levels of enforcement, and market expectations, which makes global feed safety implementation complex. GMP+ International ensures consistency through a harmonised, risk-based certification system that aligns with international requirements while remaining adaptable to local regulations and market realities. This allows companies operating across diverse markets to work within one globally recognised framework with consistent assurance levels.
What are the key benefits for companies adopting GMP+ certification, particularly in emerging markets such as India?
Getting certified by GMP+ enables companies to operate internationally in the feed business in a safe and sustainable way. The Feed LCA data also can be used for CO2 emission reporting purpose.
For companies in emerging markets such as India, GMP+ International certification provides more than compliance. It strengthens market access, builds customer trust, improves risk management, and demonstrates commitment to internationally recognised feed safety practices. It also helps companies become more competitive in global supply chains where transparency, reliability, and sustainability expectations continue to grow.
The launch of the Feed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standard is a significant development. What industry gaps or needs led to its introduction?
There is a clear market demand for harmonised LCA data. This is exactly what the Feed LCA standard covers. It is a first step to identify where areas for improvement lie in the supply chain. The tooling in scope of the standard provides the opportunity to calculate the exact data of your operations, also called primary or branded data. The more primary data available the better the insights are where to start with continuous improvement.
The introduction of the Feed LCA standard was driven by the growing demand for harmonised and credible environmental footprint data within the feed supply chain. The industry needed a practical and globally aligned approach to measure and communicate sustainability performance consistently. GMP+ International developed the standard to help companies better understand their environmental impact, support sustainability reporting, and respond to increasing market and regulatory expectations around carbon footprint and responsible sourcing.
From a practical perspective, how can feed manufacturers utilise the LCA standard to measure, manage, and communicate their environmental impact?
The harmonised primary data can be used for identifying the CO2 burning platforms in your supply chain. Where are areas of improvement? Where to start? The data from using the different tooling in the standard can be used to report out on your emission impact and can support to substantiate product claims towards consumers.
Feed manufacturers can use the GMP+ MI5.7 Feed LCA standard as a practical management tool across three levels: measure, manage, and communicate. It allows them to measure environmental impact in a consistent, feed-specific way across ingredients and processes; manage it by identifying hotspots and improving formulation, sourcing, and efficiency; and communicate it through credible, harmonised data that downstream customers and stakeholders can use directly.
Data harmonisation remains a major challenge in sustainability reporting. How does the new LCA framework address issues related to data consistency, accuracy, and reliability?
Through collaboration with industry and other scheme holders we developed a harmonised approach to calculate emission data. This is grounded from e.g. Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Product Environment Footprint category Rules (PEFCR) Feed. These international protocols are prescriptive in what should be in scope and what not. The standard assures the data is calculated in the correct way following protocols. In practice, GMP+ MI5.7 Feed LCA ensures that companies are working with comparable and verifiable data, making sustainability reporting more credible and usable across global supply chains.
What immediate and long-term benefits can companies expect from adopting the Feed LCA standard?
The standard provides clear insights in emissions of your supply chain activities and identifies starting points for improvement. These improvements contribute to supply chain risk mitigation supporting more resilient and future-proof supply chains.
Companies adopting the GMP+MI5.7 Feed LCA standard benefit in three practical ways: structured support to make LCA implementation manageable, clear and credible communication of environmental performance, and easy “plug-in” integration into downstream supply chains and customer reporting.
Finally, what is your message to feed manufacturers and stakeholders aiming to align with global standards for feed safety and sustainability?
Start now! Seek collaboration in your supply chain and start improving together supported by a harmonised approach on verified data.
Treat feed safety and sustainability not as compliance costs, but as long-term value drivers. Those who invest early in robust systems will be better positioned for regulatory change, market access, and customer trust. GMP+ International offers a practical, globally recognised framework to support that journey, helping companies move from reactive compliance to proactive risk management and credible sustainability performance across the entire feed chain.
