By John G. Surak, Ph.D., and Kathy L. Gombas
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) emerged in 2000 to
address the need to ensure food safety in Europe. Tradition-
ally, there have been a number of differences between the Euro-
pean and U.S. food retailing chains. One of the most noted differences is
that, in Europe, private-label foods have consistently grown in sales. Be-
Retailer
Sainsbury’s
Market Share
tween 1975 and
45%
1997, for example, the
Asda
44%
average private-label
Tesco
42%
product doubled in market
Waitrose
40%
share in European retail outlets.1
Safeway
34%
In 2001, private-label brands consisted
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
of 42% of the sales in Tesco and 34% of
Table 1: Private-label Products as a Percentage of Retailer Sales in the
European Market.1
