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Q and As – General
Who decides on assurance standards?
Standards are reviewed once a year by a group called a Standard Setting Body who advises the QMS Board. A list of the people, mostly from industry organisations, on the Standard Setting Bodies can be found here. The industry people are chosen to ensure a range of knowledge and are often very senior representatives of the industry. Other members are there to offer particular expertise in, for example, animal welfare and consumer attitudes.
Each year industry organisations like NFU Scotland, Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers and Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland suggest changes to the standards. The SSBs consider these suggestions and also look at research that is done to find out what standards the GB consumer wants when they are buying red meat. The final recommendations of each SSB are put to the Board of Quality Meat Scotland for agreement. The current members of the QMS Board can be found here.
Why are standards changed?
Most standards do not change from year to year and the SSBs often turn down requests for changes. Most alterations are proposed by the industry itself. Changes are only made where –
- Legislation changes – if the industry is to retain consumer confidence we cannot offer standards that are below the legal minimum.
- Industry best practice changes – assurance began when the industry decided to offer consumers beef and lamb produced to the industry’s own best practice standards. That tradition continues.
- Consumer needs change – we must match consumer expectations. We don’t need to exceed them but we cannot lag behind either.
- There are benefits for the industry – changes like the reintroduction of fish oil for breeding animals in this year’s Cattle and Sheep Scheme were specifically made to meet an industry need.
How are the industry consulted on assurance changes?
It would be impractical to consult all 10,000 farmer members but the main industry organisations are invited to offer comments on whether standards should change as part of the annual review process. Those SSB members nominated by industry organisations also have the chance to bring forward ideas. The job of each SSB is then to balance up those views against the burden on the industry and the needs of consumers. The reasons behind decisions then need to be communicated properly to industry organisations and individual farmers. That is something the SSBs will be looking at this year (see below).
Do we have to be assured?
No, it should be a business decision based on market need. If you produce for a small local market, using a local brand name, where your end customer knows you and is happy with your standards, you may not need to be assured. In practice however most of the beef, lamb and pork produced in Scotland goes to customers who require farm assurance so they know the standards involved.
What is the benefit of being assured?
The Scottish industry was one of the first to spot the market opportunity of offering assured products. It is one of the reasons why we have so many markets today. It is now a prerequisite for selling to most big customers. Assurance is also used to open up new markets – the fact that almost the whole of the Scottish industry has voluntarily taken the trouble to be assured still sends a powerful message to new customers about our determination to be the best. Being assured also gives us some protection from farms with really awful standards that can end up in newspaper headlines.
In future store producers need to be assured, not just finishers, if their animals are to be eligible to be called Scotch Beef or Scotch Lamb (see question below on Scotch).
How do we know what the consumer wants?
We need to know what the consumer really wants, not what consumer lobby groups claim they want. For this reason we are the first scheme in the UK to do regular consumer research. This tells us consumers care most about animal health and welfare, feeds and hygiene – which is why our standards major on those.
How does our assurance scheme compare with others?
Most farmers in Northern Ireland and Wales and about half the farmers in England are farm assured. A recent report by the Institute of Grocery Distribution listed the Scottish scheme as being the best, partly because it covered the whole supply chain.
There are also farm assurance schemes throughout the world, including France, Ireland, Scandinavia, South America and Australia/New Zealand. Many of these schemes include elements of on-farm assurance and traceability familiar to Scottish producers and all include some element of on-farm audit. The driver for these developments is the same as here - the demands of consumers, particularly in EU markets, for assurances over the way their food is produced.
What other parts of the Scottish chain have assurance schemes?
Feed companies, haulage firms, auction marts and processors are all assured and have the same annual inspections as farmers. In fact processors are inspected 3 times a year.
Do I have to be assured to produce Scotch Beef or Lamb?
The answer is yes. The labels for Scotch Beef and Scotch Lamb can only be used for cattle or sheep that have been born, raised and slaughtered in Scotland and have been assured from birth. This change has come about because the industry was hugely criticised 2 years ago by consumer groups and newspapers for allowing cattle and sheep that had spent most of their lives in England to be called Scotch. The modern consumer thinks that is wrong.
Until now it has also been possible for any animal finished and slaughtered in Scotland to be called Scotch no matter the standard of the farm concerned. That is why most supermarkets and QMS adverts in recent years have used the ‘Specially Selected Scotch’ brand, not just Scotch, because that meant the product had come through the Specially Selected Scotch farm assurance system. This change in the rules for Scotch means that we end the risk that a farm that cannot reach assurance standards could be found to be supplying Scotch beef. That offers safeguards to the many thousands of Scottish businesses who rely on consumers trusting Scotch beef and lamb.
Are animals born in England/Wales/Ireland still assured through QMS?
Yes, the farm inspection covers all animals on your farm. The stock can still be sold to a Scottish abattoir or a finishing farm as farm assured. The only difference is that, the beef or lamb will be used for other brand names such as processors own brand or British, but not Scotch. While the bulk of levy collected by QMS is used to support the Scotch brand, QMS also helps companies develop their other brands as long as they promote a quality message and benefit the Scottish industry as a whole.
How is assurance funded?
The assurance schemes are financed from the annual assurance fee paid by every member. None of the levy income paid to QMS is used to pay for assurance inspections. The levy money is used for promotions, R&D, market information etc.
Who employs the farm assurance inspectors?
Farm assurance inspectors are employed by Scottish Food Quality Certification (SFQC). SFQC is totally independent of QMS and is a body that specialises in inspecting and running farming and food industry certification schemes. It was awarded the QMS contract to undertake inspections after a public tendering exercise. The current contract was awarded from 1 April 2003 and is due to last until 2008. Under European wide rules for assurance schemes called EN45011, QMS is not allowed both to set standards and also carry out its own inspections. That is why we employ SFQC.
What is the connection with Scotch Quality Cereals?
There is no connection between QMS and Scotch Quality Cereals. That scheme is run and its standards set by a completely different body called Scotch Quality Cereals. The only link is that, as well as inspecting our schemes, SFQC are contracted by SQC to inspect their scheme.
There has been mention of grading assurance members. What is this about?
It is a system that already operates in the pig assurance scheme. It rewards the better farms by putting them into a higher category which means fewer inspections. Farms with repeated non compliances are in lower categories and are inspected more often. The categories are confidential and used only to decide on frequency of inspections; they are not disclosed to anyone else. If there were a proposal to extend this to cattle and sheep at some time in future, all members would be consulted first. There is no proposal at the moment.
Will the new cross compliance rules mean changes in assurance standards?
QMS is not involved in drawing up the new cross compliance rules. If the final rules look as if there could be duplication between assurance standards and cross compliance we will attempt to minimise overlap.
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