UK Introduces New Poultry Standards
The contents of a new EU broiler welfare directive issued last week by DEFRA for consultation with the poultry sector prior to implementation in 2010, has already been approved for adoption by the Assured Chicken Production (ACP*), the poultry arm of the Red Tractor food assurance scheme.
Having closely monitored this EU initiative, the standards will be incorporated into the Red Tractor ACP scheme a full 14 months before the new EU Directive is due to come into effect.
Taking food safety and animal welfare standards to a new high within the Red Tractor food assurance scheme, poultry farmers will be inspected against a raft of standards that are being introduced across the EU via the new Directive
New initiatives in the UK include the creation of and investment in a new ’Training Passport’ scheme to formally train stockmen to NVQ levels, a development which has already attracted interest from over 2000 applicants.
Chairman of the ACP Board, David Joll, says: "Food safety and animal welfare are at the top of our agenda and we are committed to operating to the highest standards across a wide number of breeds of chicken to ensure that quality chicken is widely available to consumers.
"We are setting the bar high by introducing new standards that are independently assessed and independently inspected by Red Tractor Assured Food Standards certification bodies.
David Clarke, CEO of Assured Food Standards, says: "Red Tractor is unique in that it demands major controls that are independently inspected to ensure the very highest levels of food safety whilst maintaining appropriate animal welfare standards and environmental codes that do not restrict consumer choice like some other schemes.
The new Red Tractor ACP standards will come into force from 1st April 2009 and will incorporate additional elements such as controls on temperature, humidity, environmental emissions and require farmers to investigate additional forms of environmental enrichment for chickens. Consumers can be guaranteed they are buying British chickens produced to these standards by looking for the Red Tractor logo bearing the Union flag.
