QA, brands are beef’s rising force as consumers demand assurances

That has been reflected in the demand for transparency and assurances of the quality and sustainability of the food produced.

In the beef industry that has meant there has been an explosion in the number of brands being marketed.

An essential add on to these brands is an associated quality assurance program.

In Australia the most basic QA program is the Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) required by every producer to be able to sell livestock.

There are myriad of QA programs and brands, and that number continues to rise as consumers, processors and producers realise the power of assurance.

Among the industry programs is Pasturefed Cattle Assurance System (PCAS), an on-farm assurance program that supports raising claims relating to pasturefed or grassfed production methods.

​​​​​The European Union Cattle Accreditation Scheme (EUCAS) is a national animal production scheme that guarantees full traceability of all animals through the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), linking individual animal identification to a central database.

JBS Farm Assurance is possibly one of the best known company-facilitated QA programs operating across the Australian livestock industry.

Launched in 2011, it has successfully mustered the support of 2600 producers, third-party audited, to supply its livestock needs for its Great Southern range. The range of branded beef, lamb and goat meat products is produced at one of its five southern processing plants.

Company officials said the program was a whole-of-chain QA program that began on-farm and extended through to the end user.

The QA program has a strong influence over animal health and welfare components along with rigorous workplace health and safety aspects and a broad range of on-farm management practices, involving livestock food and water, chemical use and sustainable environmental factors.

JBS QA manager Mark Inglis said the JBS program was designed using a top-down approach driven by customers, focusing on the needs of customers.

The program also means that any changes that the program’s panel of customer advisors suggest must first be run back past a panel of producer advisors to gauge their reaction.

Under the Great Southern banner, JBS produces a broad range of fully traceable grass-fed meat products that are antibiotic, hormone and GMO-free.

“One of the great benefits for the producers being involved in JBSFA was that each producer is provided with a scorecard of their supply performance,” JBS Southern livestock manager, Steve Chapman, said.

This scorecard benchmarks the results of every carcase in each consignment against other previous carcases and consignment, which provided producers with the encouragement and purpose to improve their performance.

For breeder-finishers it could assist in improving the selection process of their breeding programs using information on carcase features like marbling (IMF) and fat cover.

Mr Chapman said the program also benchmarked the compliance of JBS’ own livestock buyers and its individual processing plants to gauge their performance in supplying and producing product according to the Great Southern grading specifications.

He said the aim of the benchmarking feedback was to encourage 100pc compliance to the grading specification so that in the case of the producers they could achieve 100pc of the premiums offered.

JBS chief operating officer, Sam McConnell, said participating producers had been paid 47c/kg on average higher market values for supplying carcases that grade to the company’s specification.

That premium of the past 12 months totaled $21 million, rewarding producers for their participation, he said.

Long established meat processor, Greenham, wants to be able to assure its customers that what it says on the box is what is supplied.

HW Greenham and Sons managing director Peter Greenham Jnr said the business had a heavy emphasis on what customers want in relatiion to its programs.

“Some big customers in the US need animal welfare assurances, whole of life, not just the finisher or the person who sells the beast to the program,” he said.

“Most now want birth to slaughter, everyone in the supply chain,” he said.

Greenhams started its first quality assurance program in 2007 – Cape Grim –  developed for a Japanese company that wanted grassfed product, no hormones.

Mr Greenham said it went on to move into the United States and started the Never, Ever program for meat  that was antibiotic free and hormone free.

“We are deeply concerned that consumers are number one and we can put on the box everything the consumer wants both in the US and domestically,” Mr Greenham said.

“We are trying to be on the front foot in relation to animal welfare, with a program that is commercial for the producers and that if something ever did happen, that we have all these aspects in place – and the program is rigorously audited – and we can stand up to anyone trying to tell us how we should be managing cattle.

“If we are going to put a product on the shelves of the biggest supermarket in the world or in some of the top end restaurants, we must be seen to be doing everything we can to make sure what we say is correct.”

The company uses third party auditing for its two programs – Global Animal Partnership (a whole-foods program audited by Aus-Meat) and the Never, Ever program (audited by Australian Certified Organic).

Greenhams has three plants – at Tongala, northern Victoria, handling cast-for-age cows and bulls primarily for the US hamburger trade; Smithton, north-west Tasmania, processing Cape Grim products and some other brands; and Moe in West Gippsland.

Mr Greenham said that cattle for the company’s high end brands none were purchased through the saleyards.

“We love direct relationships and our business has been built on that,” he said.

“For us to assure our customers about what we are selling them we have to be assured that the product we buy meets the specifications,” he said.

Meat Standards Australia program manager, Sarah Strachan, said beef brands continued to be the growth area with new brands, but also existing brands, becoming more sophisticated in the way they used MSA.

“A lot of processors have adopted MSA as a standard for eating quality, but are carving out their point of difference in the market place with their use of MSA,” she said.