Pilot testing of the Canadian pork sector’s new on farm food quality and animal care assurance program is now complete and the program has received its final approval.
Canadian Pork Excellence, the Canadian pork sector’s new on farm food quality and animal care assurance program, will replace CQA, Canadian Quality Assurance and ACA, the Animal Care Assessment.
Mark Fynn, the Manager of Quality Assurance and Animal Care Programs with Manitoba Pork, notes development of the new package began in 2014.
The Canadian Pork Excellence platform consists of three programs. The one is PigTRACE Canada which is already in full force but the on farm quality assurance components of it consist of PigSAFE Canada which is the food safety on farm component and then PigCARE Canada which the on farm animal care assurance program. The PigSAFE and PigCARE Canada programs have had producer input from the get go on what should be included in them. We did that through a series of committees but we also wanted to make sure that we involved producers that were not part of that committee structure as well and so, through the pilot testing, we had 73 farms from across Canada, participate in there to receive further feedback from producers and to see what it looks like on farm. Then in addition, after we went through that round of revisions to the drafts, we engaged another group of producers who have had very little experience in the programs in the past to review those and the final approval came through the Canadian Pork Council board.
~ Mark Fynn, Manitoba Pork
Fynn says circulation of the program materials will begin by late summer and beginning in January, as their regular evaluations come up, producers will transition onto the new program but they can choose to do so before that.
