Red Tractor brings harmony to food standards

Processors concerned about due diligence could navigate their way more easily around UK farm standards in different sectors, thanks to their harmonisation under the Assured Food Standards (AFS) scheme.

That was the verdict of AFS chief executive David Clarke, who was announcing the new harmonised standards at the London office of the National Farmers’ Union last week. “If they [manufacturers] are buying a range of materials and want to know the detail for their own due diligence they can find their way around the standards better than they could in the past,” he said. Clarke added that the standards had been previously “hidden away in different corners”
In turn, retailers “could be confident that we have reviewed all areas and have consistency across all standards”, he said.
As a result of the harmonisation, the Red Tractor logo would initially be combined with the other farm assurance logos for the various sectors. However, these would be phased out within a couple of years, said Clarke.
Schemes would be renamed accordingly under the umbrella ‘Red Tractor Farm Assurance’. For example, the Assured British Meat scheme would be renamed ‘Red Tractor Farm Assurance - Beef and Lamb and the Assured Dairy Farms scheme would become ‘Red Tractor Farm Assurance - Dairy’
“All these schemes were introduced in the 1990s and therefore they do look different,” said Clarke. “We felt it was time we needed to address that.”
There were few changes to the standards themselves - it was more a question of ensuring the use of common terminology, said Clarke.
The most significant changes included standards regarding the safe storage and use of pesticides on livestock farms which have been introduced for the first time. Standards for crops and produce farms have been better aligned. The alterations were in line with impending EU legislation, said AFS.
Further changes, particularly with regard to environmental standards, would be the subject of subsequent revisions, said Clarke.
The 45,000 farmers involved in the AFS scheme will receive new manuals to help them meet industry standards for their sector by February. The standards will be effective for farm inspections from April 1. Producers can see any updates that might affect them at the Red Tractor website​.
In addition, farmers would have access to a common template for farm records, which they could print out from the AFS website.