Why is the audit cycle changing?
Red Tractor's Poultry Sector Chairman, Iain Gardner, explains why we are changing the frequency of Red Tractor assessments for Poultry Scheme members.
The last few years have been incredibly challenging for UK poultry farmers. The sector has experienced the worst periods of the avian influenza in living memory, with consecutive record-setting outbreaks over the last three years. In the same period, the pandemic upended standard farming practices, the UK’s transition from the EU disrupted supply chains, and recent high inflation has eroded profit margins. Despite these challenges, UK poultry continues to meet the demand of today’s customers and consumers, maintaining chicken’s status as the UK most popular meat product.
Our promise to consumers: As the severity of HPAI has increased, the sector has rightly moved toward a higher level of risk management regarding on farm biosecurity. It is vital that farm assurance evolves in line with material changes in farming practice, as this underpins consumer confidence in the way UK poultry is produced.
The Red Tractor promise to consumers is that our assessors check farms all year round. Now that Covid-related restrictions are firmly behind us, Red Tractor has been working over the past year with colleagues across the UK poultry supply chain to develop an appropriate level of audit which respect the requirement for on farm biosecurity. I am pleased to say we have now identified practical solutions for an audit cycle which guarantee the continued integrity of UK food assurance of Red Tractor poultry scheme members.
The changes detailed in this interactive Technical Briefing are crucial to ensuring continued confidence in your products - that they are traceable, safe, and farmed with care - and will provide you and your business with the relevant information to help you anticipate your Red Tractor audit requirements.
Our assessors check farms all year round.
Our promise to you: Red Tractor is constantly reviewing how best to verify compliance against our standards so it is robust, practical and efficient. So we will be monitoring the success of these changes over the next couple of years but in parallel will also be looking at how we can improve our systems using data, technology, other intelligence and risk based approaches to ensure proof of compliance meets industry and consumer needs for the future.
Best wishes,
Iain Gardner, Red Tractor Poultry Chair
…We will be monitoring the success of these changes over the next couple of years…to ensure proof of compliance meets industry and consumer needs for the future.
The unprecedented outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and pandemic-related disruptions over the past few years have caused prolonged disruption to on-farm poultry assessments.
Together, these challenges represent a risk to the confidence which underpins consumer trust in the poultry sector.
With the increased scrutiny in British Agriculture and food production, our sector board (which is made of farmers, processors, industry body representatives and industry experts) have agreed that it is important for the industry to demonstrate its commitment to bird safety and welfare.
