Assurance
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The Red Tractor Pork Assurance Mark is an integrated scheme for English pig meat production involving the farm, feed supply, livestock haulier, abattoir and processing plant, all of which must comply with strict operating standards.
All pork, bacon and ham that carries the Red Tractor Pork brand comes from farmers and processors committed to high standards of animal welfare, quality control and traceability.
Every link in the supply chain is subject to regular independent auditing to ensure they conform.
Three standard bodies currently offer membership to the farm element of the assurance scheme. These bodies operate equivalent standards.
The scheme recognises certain assurance bodies operating to recognised international standards (EN45011) as priority quality assurance standards that are equivalent to those of the BPEX scheme.
Membership of these schemes therefore satisfies the BPEX requirement.
For more information on pork promotional campaigns and pork recipes visit the Lovepork website.
For more information about production definitions and labelling guidance of pig meat visit www.porkprovenance.co.uk
New assurance standards - manipulable materials
Red Tractor Assurance Scheme standards for manipulable material for pigs have been changed and will come in on 1 April 2010. BPEX has produced a short introductory guide to help ensure that you comply with the new standards. The guide will help assess some of the options depending on the system you have. More information and advice on enrichment toys and manipulable materials will be available from May 2010 and at the British Pig and Poultry Fair.
The revised standards – Red Tractor Farm Assurance, Section AH.1.1 – include the following:
- Chains alone are not acceptable
- Tyres are not acceptable as some may contain wire which could hurt the pigs
- Objects must be shown to be of interest to the pigs – i.e. not fouled
- Objects must be within the pigs’ reach