The new beef and lamb quality assurance scheme was launched this week: renamed, enlarged and with some changes.

To make it more farmer-friendly, the new scheme has a one-month close-out period and a new advisory helpdesk. These are aimed at addressing key farmer complaints about the outgoing scheme.

The old Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme was a cause of great concern and annoyance to many farmers. Many found the inspections overly onerous and intrusive.

For customers of Irish beef and lamb, the scheme will now prove the sustainability of Irish meat production. That is in addition to providing quality assurance. The scheme name changes to Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS).

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Sustainability is not entirely new for farmers in the outgoing scheme.

For the past five years they have been providing some of this data, during audit, for calculation of their carbon footprint. But additional information is required in the new scheme. Farmers will be sent a sustainability questionnaire in advance and invited to complete it ahead of the audit.

The new scheme will begin rolling out after Easter. There are 50,000 cattle and sheep farmers in the QA scheme. As they come up for their 18-month re-audit, they will be brought into the new scheme. So, after 18 months all these farmers will be in the new scheme.

New – close-out period and helpdesk

Under the close-out model, a farmer will be given a four-week opportunity to correct issues found during audit. During that period, the farmer remains certified and eligible for factory bonuses.

In the current scheme, a non-compliance found on audit sees the farmer losing certification. The close-out model is already in use in the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme and is one factor credited with the far lower failure rate among farmers in that scheme.

During the close-out period, farmers will be able to provide evidence to their auditors via photographs, invoices, etc that they have carried out the work required. In general a re-audit will not be required. Farmers who fail to address issues during the one-month period will lose certification and cannot apply for a new audit for six months.

Bord Bia is also launching a new helpdesk to help farmers preparing for audit and to help farmers addressing non-compliance issues. It has already invited tenders for provision of this service which will be available to farmers over the phone throughout the year.

Its plan is that the helpdesk staff will proactively liaise with farmers who are in a close-out situation, advising them on how to correct non-compliance issues. It will advise them on how to submit evidence when they have done so. If necessary, farmers will be reminded that they are coming near the one-month deadline for correcting non-compliance issues.

The helpdesk is aimed at mirroring the advisory service available to most dairy farmers from their co-ops, which is again credited with achieving the lower non-compliance rate in the dairy scheme.

New – sustainability criteria

In the current assurance scheme, auditors collect sustainability data during the audit and use it to produce a farmer’s carbon footprint. In the new scheme, a farmer will complete a sustainability survey. Additional information on issues such as water use, biodiversity and social sustainability will be collected during the audit.

Sustainability will not be a pass/fail issue for a farmer in audit, once he or she provides the data. Irish beef and lamb already score favourably under this heading. Bord Bia says that formally including it in the scheme will ensure food buyers are aware of the sustainability of Irish meat. Widening the data used will enable favourable claims be made about the sustainability of Irish meat and lamb, it says.

Length of audit

The amount of data to be collected for audit and certification has increased. Bord Bia maintains that the audit can still be done in the same 90-minute time frame as the audit in the outgoing scheme. That is by “use of smart technology”, by the farmer completing the sustainability survey themselves in advance and having farm records up to date for the audit.

A farmer who is unable to complete the sustainability survey can do so during the audit with the auditor but that will add to the length of the audit.

Factory bonuses

Quality bonuses are paid by meat plants, Bord Bia points out. Factories require certification under QA as a base for bonuses. But they need additional criteria of their own reflecting the premium markets they are targeting, eg number of movements, weight.

Now approved

The new scheme was designed by Bord Bia in collaboration with the sector stakeholders to meet the demands of global food buyers. The scheme is accredited to the International Standard for Product Certification ISO 17065 by the Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB), who approved the scheme at the end of last week.

Read more

Farmers to complete sustainability survey as part of new QA scheme

5 things farmers should know about the QA scheme

Editorial: farmers must believe in QA for it to work