KAMLOOPS, B.C. – More than 2,000 beef producers have taken their first tentative steps toward adopting an on-farm food safety program.
While the concept has been discussed for more than 10 years, the national program is moving forward slowly due to lack of money and slow uptake within some of the provinces, said Terry Grajczyk, national manager of the verified beef program.
“In Western Canada we saw a gradual increasing interest,” she said.
Eastern Canada has been slower to adopt it. Ontario has been pushing it but the Maritimes are behind partly because provinces need more co-ordinators.
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Food safety programs starting at the farm level are becoming common throughout the world, said Rob McNabb, assistant manager of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, speaking at the group’s annual convention in Kamloops, B.C., on Aug. 17.
Some are linked to retail programs as a prerequisite to selling products while others are government driven. For example, the European Union’s General Food Law of 2001 notes responsibility for food safety starts with producers.
So far, 25 different commodities in Canada are adopting on-farm food safety programs including grains, pulses, spices, fish and livestock.
Examples include Canadian Quality Assurance for pork, Start Clean, Stay Clean for poultry and Canadian Quality Milk.
All the programs use quality guidelines set by the International Organization for Standardization and are HACCP based.
Hazard Analysis Critic Control Points is a systematic approach to analyzing potential hazards at every point in production, said Grajczyk.
“It is all about reducing risk for potential food safety problems.”
The federal government and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are getting involved with funding and approval of technical aspects of these programs.
Some commodities are moving toward mandatory membership in the program, making it a prerequisite before selling products to a processor.
Producers start the program by attending a workshop where they receive a standard manual to outline how biological, chemical and physical procedures are to be handled on the farm.
It outlines how farm chemicals and livestock medicines should be stored and gives details on prohibited feeds for ruminants, sanitation, training for workers and observing withdrawal periods for medication.
Producers must keep records in which they document all animal health procedures. These records can then be presented when cattle are shipped or received.
Provincial co-ordinators have been set up from east to west and when a producer feels ready, his farm procedures are checked by accredited auditors. An audit may take place for cow-calf producers who have kept records for six months and for feedlots with three months worth of records.
About 100 operations have gone through their first audit.
In the event of a food recall, verified records can help manage the situation before it becomes a crisis.
Audited farm practices could also be a selling point to gain market share.
Food processors have looked favourably at the program but so far none have made it a condition of sale of animals to a plant.
“They have told us they are not going to push it,” Grajczyk said.
However, some small processors coming on stream are making membership in the program a quality parameter, she said.
