Does the egg industry need a Quality Assurance scheme?

The Australian Egg Corporation really is a law unto itself. A letter arrived today advising that a consultant had been appointed 'to help provide AECL with clarity on whether a national industry based Quality Assurance scheme is required by egg producers.'
What the .... !!!!!!!

AECL has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of members funds in developing its ill-fated Egg Standards Australia debacle which was rejected by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Wouldn't it have been sensible to find out if the scheme was wanted or needed before spending all that dough?

In the letter, AECL asks three questions:
1.should the egg industry have a QA scheme?
2. if so, should AECL offer such a scheme?
3. if the answer is yes, then 'how' should the scheme be offered, taking account of structure and resources?

Well in response to those questions:

1. No. What's important is to have a national standard reflecting provisions in the Model Code. The industry needs clear definitions covering production types (cage, barn and free range) and those definitions must be enshrined in legislation to prevent the sort of nonsense which the corporate egg industry has been getting away with for years. The only other real requirement is meeting food safety regulations which are in place in all States.

2. No. AECL has demonstrated its incompetence with its 20,000 hens per hectare stocking density proposal for free range farms. Farms can readily develop their own QA schemes having regard to an enforceable Model Code (or its successor) and State Food Safety Regulations. As a lobby group, there is no place for AECL to have any involvement in the implementation or oversight of any such scheme. There are already Food Safety Regulations in place with compliance administered by State Governments and local councils - there is no need for this process to be duplicated.

Will AECL take any notice? I doubt it.

Food Safety and Quality Assurance program for all free range egg farms in Australia

 

There is massive demand amongst free range egg farmers for help with preparing the documentation needed to comply with the increasing complexity of State and Federal regulations. Because there now is no active association representing the free range industry here in Victoria, we have been getting emails and phone calls from operators of free range farms asking how they can set up food safety and quality assurance programs on their farms.
We also get quite a few requests from interstate.
The simplest way, as we always tell them, is to adapt a generic program which has already been developed.
We have a program on the Freeranger website which is readily available on the Freeranger Club page and full info is available on the Food Safety page of our site. If anyone needs help adapting the program, please contact an egg industry consultant - or we can help. All you have to do is ask.
http://www.freeranger.com.au/food-safety.html
A heap of information is also available on the DEPI website and every registered egg producer has received a copy of the booklet on food safety. The document includes information to assist in meeting the requirements of the standard and manage the food safety hazards associated with egg production.

Producers must comply with the obligations set out in the standard if they have 50 birds or more. If you don't have a recognised QA program in place, you are required to follow a food safety management statement.The food safety management statement is evidence that you have appropriate systems in place and the statement must be produced if you are asked to do so.

A food safety management statement can be a recognised quality assurance program or a generic food safety management statement approved by the Secretary of the DEPI.

Vic Government releases food safety requirements for egg farmers

Many egg producers thumb their noses at food safety issues because they don't understand (or don't care) about the implications for consumers or for their businesses.

 

At last, here in Victoria the Government has sent out its requirements for meeting the new national standards for egg production which came into effect on November 26 last year. It gives producers until November 26 2014 to comply with egg stamping regulations!
 

Which means that for more than another year, many Victorian consumers will continue to have no idea where the eggs they buy actually originate. There have been many examples of substitution, with eggs brought in from other farms using different production systems - some of them interstate. These eggs are packed and marketed as being produced on a particular farm, to specific standards.
 

At least when stamping each egg with a unique farm identification code, consumers may be able to tell who is cheating. But until November next year the con merchants will have a ball.

 

Once the Department of Primary Industries has issued us with a code to put on our eggs, we intend to buy the necessary equipment and start stamping Freeranger Eggs even though we don't have to for almost 18 months.

 

It makes sense to us that consumers should be able to tell the source of the eggs they buy.

 

At Freeranger Eggs we've had a fully operation HACCP-based Quality Assurance and Food Safety Program in place for several years, so we don't have to do anything more apart from stamping the eggs. 

 

One dumb thing in the new regulations is that eggs can be stamped on the farm where they are laid - or at the grading floor. (This means that smart operators of the grading floor can put on any identifier they like. What a loophole!)