The Manager of Quality Assurance and Animal Care Programs with Manitoba Pork says the Canadian pork sector’s new food quality and animal care assurance program will be a key component of pork marketing efforts moving forward.
Canadian Pork Excellence, an updated suite of programs, focuses on swine traceability, the PigTRACE component, on farm food safety, the PigSAFE component and animal care, the PigCARE component.
Mark Fynn, the Manager of Quality Assurance and Animal Care Programs with Manitoba Pork, told those on hand this month for the 2018 Manitoba Swine Seminar, there are many premium markets that take these assurances very seriously.
Recently Canadian Pork Council and Canada Pork have developed a Verified Canadian Pork branding logo. That logo in an of itself incorporates traceability, food safety and animal care.
The pillars that really hold up that branding are these new programs, the PigSAFE program, the PigCARE program and PigTRACE. Through developing these programs we make sure that we have the foundation around that Verified Canadian Pork so that when that logo gets put on our pork products people know what to expect of it and understand that it meets a certain standard.
It’s important to note that the existing food safety program, CQA, and existing animal care program, ACA, have been looked at as having a high standard to our markets already. But, in reviewing those requirements that are within the programs, we’ve created these new programs, PigSAFE and PigCARE programs and launched Verified Canadian Pork and all of our marketers that have talked about these new programs and the new branding have been received very well by international markets.
Canadian pork is looked at as being the safest pork in the world from a lot of our markets and we want to keep that up while also emphasizing how good our animal care standards are on farm as well while meeting the need for safe pork that goes on consumers’ plates.
~ Mark Fynn, Manitoba Pork
