June 7, 2007

Australia welcomes quality assurance on pig regulations

The Australian Pork Limited (APL) has lauded the move by the NSW (New South Wales) Food Authority to require all pigs sent to NSW domestic abattoirs with a valid National Vendor Declaration (NVD) as from June 30, 2007.

The validity of NVD, under the Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production and Transport of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption, animals must be sourced from a facility that has been accredited under a recognised on-farm quality assurance (QA) programme, being either PigPass QA or Australian Pork Industry Quality (APIQ).

Andrew Spencer chief executive officer of APL, said processors were now generally requiring pigs for export to be accompanied by an NVD, linked to an approved farm QA programme, as part of their approved arrangements for Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) certification.

However, he said the industry, in the long term, cannot continue to operate on two levels, for export and domestic and a single regulatory regulation should be implemented to include all scopes.