World Food Safety Day: How our Australian producers are contributing to our world-class red meat integrity
World Food Safety Day 2022 marked recently in June is a call to arms to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks and improve overall human health through food consumption.
Facilitated by government bodies World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, this year’s theme of “Safer Food, Better Health” specifically highlights the role that safe, nutritional food plays in ensuring human health and well-being.
Quick facts
- The Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) program supports food safety by providing evidence of livestock history and on-farm practices to give confidence to consumers that the red meat they eat is safe, clean and high quality.
- The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) helps to support food safety by ensuring each animal can be identified and given a status should they be exposed to a disease to protect food safety and human consumption of red meat.
- National Vendor Declarations (NVD / eNVD) enable the livestock’s movements to be traced and the animals’ isolated should they be exposed to disease to prevent the spread and impact to the food chain.
The programs upheld by Integrity Systems, including NLIS and LPA, are the underpinnings of food safety throughout the Australian red meat industry. Through lifetime traceability and on-farm assurance, we can ensure our products have been raised ethically, without exposure to foodborne disease, and are safe for consumption by anyone across the globe.
The campaign reads: We all have a role to play; whether we grow, process, transport, store, sell, buy, prepare or serve food, food safety is in all our hands. And if we work together, we can all help achieve safer food for better health.
Australia’s work in food safety
The Australian red meat industry is world-renowned for our integrity, traceability and commitment to safe and ethical products. Integrity Systems Company works to support our producers, processors and all members of the red meat value chain in maintaining this integrity, through our systems and commitments such as:
1. National Livestock Identification System (NLIS)
NLIS is Australia’s legislated system for lifetime traceability for livestock throughout the value chain. As animals are bought, sold and moved along the supply chain, they must be tagged with an NLIS accredited tag or device from their property (PIC) of birth. These tags allow livestock to be traced from property of birth through to final processing, meaning any possible disease outbreak or food safety issue can be traced and controls put in place to mitigate adverse impacts to the food chain.
2. Livestock Production Assurance (LPA)
The Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) program is the industry’s on-farm assurance program that underpins market access for Australian red meat. It is a commitment to undertake.
Becoming accredited with LPA means that livestock producers agree to abide by the LPA Rules and Standards, including the seven requirements of LPA which cover:
- assessing risks on-farm
- treating animals safely and responsibly
- managing pasture and fodder treatments
- preparing animals for dispatch
- documenting livestock transactions and movements
- maintaining biosecurity practices
- adhering to animal welfare practices.
This accreditation is a guarantee that producers stand by what they sell.
3. National Vendor Declarations
The Australian red meat industry prides itself on its integrity throughout all steps in the value chain. The LPA National Vendor Declaration communicates the food safety and treatment status of every animal every time it moves along the value chain. It is a movement document that is a pledge that the meat from your farm has been produced safely, ethically and meets biosecurity requirements.
Integrity through the value chain
Producers, agents, saleyards and processors work together to ensure their products are safe for consumption. World Food Safety Day is a day to showcase our world-class integrity systems – systems that keep our consumers safe, healthy and confident in the knowledge that Australian red meat producers can stand by what they sell.
For more information on how our red meat integrity system underpins our clean, green and safe red meat image please visit the red meat integrity system web page.
For more information on World Food Safety Day, please visit the campaign webpage.