Feed material production

QS has agreed a mutual recognition of audits and/or certificates with several international standard owners of the feed industry to avoid double auditing of companies.

For the recognition by one or more other standard owners log in the QS database with your access data and select for the corresponding location via the tab Recognitions under Recognition in third-party systems through which third-party systems you wish a recognition by placing a check mark at the appropriate standard (GMP+ Int., Ovocom, AIC, AMA, Qualimat Transport, Fami-QS).

If you wish a recognition by QM-Milk or KAT, place a check mark in the location data directly under Recognitions at Participation QM-Milk or Participation KAT. For the recognition of small-scale producers (feed material production) by GMP+ as well as of mobile grinding and mixing plants by AMA, your certification body deposits the recognition request.

For deliveries to EFISC GTP-certified companies, you only need to provide your customer with the QS certificate.

You can find further information in the Annex 9.1 to the Guideline Feed sector.

To avoid double auditing, QS has agreed a mutual recognition of audits and/or certificates with several international standard owners.

Based on the recognition, you can deliver to the QS scheme. To obtain the QS eligibility of delivery, register your company directly in the QS database. It is important that you indicate the standard by which your company is certified as certification scheme. The registration of pastus+ certified small-scale producers and mobile milling and mixing plants in the QS database is carried out via AMA.

CSA GTP-certified companies do not yet need to register in the QS database to deliver into the QS scheme. For now, it is enough to present a valid certificate, whereby the respective area of activity must be indicated on the certificate. Oqualim-certified companies who comply with the standard RCNA International and the additional module Annex 1: Purchase requirements for goods and services and wish the eligibility of delivery in the QS scheme will be published on the website of Oqualim (www.oqualim.com) and as recognized Oqualim locations (France) in the scheme participant of the QS database.

You can find out which standards are recognized for which activity in Annex 9.1 to the Guideline Feed sector.

If you want to participate in the QS scheme as a feed company owner, register in the QS database. There you also choose a certification body that will perform the audit at your company. After successful auditing, feed producers and traders sign a scheme agreement with QS. Service providers like warehouse keepers and transport companies are contractually integrated into the QS scheme via the certification body.

You can find out which certification bodies are approved in the QS scheme from this list.

Food manufacturers that produce feed as a by-product are part of the feed chain and must be certified as feed producers in order to deliver into the QS scheme. The requirements for feed must be integrated into the company's internal quality assurance and HACCP system. Existing control and documentation systems that demonstrate that the requirements are met can be used for this purpose.

Note: If you produce less than 1,000 tons (dry matter) feed material per year, you can also participate in the QS scheme via an inspection as small-scale feed material producer.

If you produce less than 1,000 t feed material per year (dry matter), you can participate in the QS scheme trough an inspection as a small-scale producer. To participate, contact a certification body that organises all subsequent steps and performs the inspection.

You can find which certification bodies are approved in the QS scheme in this list.

Under certain conditions feed material producers can participate in the QS scheme through a system coordinator. The system coordinator is an organizational structure through which economically independent companies are grouped together and integrated into the QS scheme. The system coordinator acts as a scheme participant (contractual partner) in the QS scheme. Each feed producer organized by the system coordinator is a location of the system coordinator and is approved as his premises. For the approval of the producer, a certification of the location by a QS-approved certification body is necessary. You can ask at the QS office whether your company can use this possibility. There you will also receive the contact details of the system coordinators.

When do I have to be certificated as a feed company?

If you want to deliver feed to a QS certified customer, you must be eligible to deliver the correspondent products into the QS scheme. This is possible either via a QS certification or via a certification according to a standard recognized by QS. Excluded from the certification obligation are only pure trade, storage, transhipment, and transport of packaged goods as well as pure agent activities.

Further information on the certification obligation in the QS scheme can be found in the Annex 9.3 to the Guideline Feed Sector.