FIAS covers the assurance of all fertilisers intended for agriculture, horticulture, forestry, amenity and any other such commercial use. It does not apply to fertilisers packaged for home garden use. The issues and the risks vary according to the type of fertiliser and it is for this reason that the entire scheme has adopted a “Risk assessment” approach to achieving the necessary level of assurance.
The scheme covers the entire supply chain of fertiliser and assures compliance of each stage process to the following principles:
- Legislation
- Specific product and environmental legal compliance.
- Security
- Prevention of unauthorised access and/or removal of the product.
- Traceability
- Identification of batches of raw materials to origin and the identification of batches of finished product to customer.
- Safety
- Product complies with the legislative safety requirements.
- Good Practice
Effective management controls to ensure that fertiliser is only sold to legitimate agricultural businesses and that the requirements of this standard, environmental measures and relevant industry Codes of Practice are implemented.
The scheme is broken down into separate standards for:
- Manufacture
- Merchanting
- Transport
- Storage
Applicants are assessed to the requirements of all standards that apply to their business, for the activities that fall within the scope of the scheme. Each module requires an applicant to undertake a formal and structured risk assessment study and implement the controls that are determined necessary by the study. Therefore the extent and robustness of the controls exercised by a company will be directly related to the safety and security risks associated with the fertiliser under their control.
Independent assessments are carried out to determine whether companies involved in the supply of fertiliser comply with the scheme requirements and have introduced adequate measures to deal with the risks associated with the products.