Red Tractor launches initiatives to improve scheme

They include improvements to its assessment and inspection systems and the introduction of a team of ‘superauditors’ to check the work of assessors.

The measures should help ensure that standards are properly and consistently implemented, David Clarke ceo of Assured Food Standards, which operates the Red Tractor scheme, said.

“These latest initiatives, which we have been developing and refining over the past 18 months, are now being introduced to further enhance the quality and consistency in the way Red Tractor’s well-respected standards are implemented,”​ he explained.

‘Completely revised’ ​

The Red Tractor scheme audits every company that uses its logo to ensure products can be traced back to assured farms.

This audit process has been “completely revised”​ to ensure increased scrutiny at every link in the supply chain.

All farm assessors are undergoing new training courses to ensure such rigour and a select team of ‘superauditors’ will check the work of farm assessors through a programme of spot checks  to ensure standards are implemented consistently.

Red Tractor Assurance embraces food safety, animal welfare, traceability back to farms and environmental protection.

The Red Tractor logo was introduced last year for use on ready meals​ and other multi-ingredient foods. This maintains the same standards applied to individual food products.

Animal welfare ​

Red Tractor has also embraced the latest veterinary science in its approach to animal welfare, Clarke claimed.

He added that close collaboration with the UK’s pig industry had led to more assessment of the welfare of pigs on more farms and more often than any other assurance scheme.

“Red Tractor Assurance covers more farms, includes more types of food, inspects more animals and addresses more safety issues than any other UK assurance scheme and the Red Tractor logo is now on-pack on more than £12bn worth of food and drink products,”​ he claimed.