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INFO LETTER
Meat and meat products
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Issue: 03/2013
Quality Assurance.
From farm to shop.
Editorial
1
Green light for Animal Welfare Initiative
1
Focus on Animal Welfare
2
Interview: “In the Right Direction”
2
Poultry: New Guidelines
2
QS-live Ambassador Josef Hupfer
3
Communicating Quality Assurance Together 3
Meat: International Recognitions
4
Scheme Participants and Markets
4
News in Brief
4
Dear Readers,
The industry is taking steps together to gradu-
ally improve the welfare of animals. Industry-
wide solutions for pigs and poultry have already
been developed which provide financial incen-
tives to farmers to allow them to place an even
stronger focus on animal welfare without dam-
aging the competitiveness of the entire industry
(see pages 1 and 2).
Josef Hupfer is actively involved in supporting
the wellbeing of animals. He is a cattle farmer in
Bavaria and a QS-live ambassador. Within the
framework of the QS-live information campaign,
he helps consumers to gain a better under-
standing of where meat comes from (Page 3).
Lore Mauler has been a QS ambassador since the
very beginning and regularly attends trade fairs to
communicate with consumers. Patrick Grevenig is
new in the ranks of QS-live ambassadors. He was
enlisted at the ANUGA (see page 3).
We hope you enjoy reading this edition of the
info letter.
Your QS Team
Bonn, 18. November 2013
Animal welfare in Germany is set to improve
even further in the future. With the indus-
try-wide initiatives for animal welfare, farm-
ers, meat producers and food retailers have
committed to fair and sustainable meat pro-
duction. Their top representatives signed
a declaration to this effect on 5 September
2013 in Berlin. The economic operators
thereby commissioned QS to take charge of
the further coordination process.
A lot has been achieved since the initiatives for
animal welfare were launched in the summer of
2012. Within twelve months, the economic op-
erators have developed industry-wide solutions
for improved animal welfare and agreed on a
joint approach. The declaration of intent states:
“The value added chains for pigs and poultry,
from the farm to the meat industry all the way to
food retail, accept joint responsibility and com-
mit together to further improving animal farm-
ing, animal health and animal protection”.
One of the vital elements of the agreement
is that pig farmers, broiler farmers and turkey
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
INDUSTRY-WIDE SOLUTION AGREED UPON
MILESTONE IN ANIMAL WELFARE INITIATIVES
farmers will in future
receive compensation
of costs when they go
beyond legal require-
ments to achieve bet-
ter animal welfare.
The willingness of
the food retail to
compensate for the
added
overheads
is essential here.
Farmers will receive
compensation
of
costs from the food
retail for the extra overheads incurred – and
this is not dependent on the market price. The
amount of compensation is individually de-
fined for each additional animal welfare crite-
rion and is based on the expected overheads
associated with the criteria implemented by
the farmers. In recent months, working groups
have developed corresponding criteria cata-
logues for application both in pig farming and
poultry farming.
Participation in the initiatives for animal welfare
is voluntary for all farmers. Independent audi-
tors will check each year whether requirements
are being met on the farms and whether rights
to payment exist. More steps need to be taken
before the scheme can start. One of these steps
is a review by the German Federal Cartel Office.
You can read more about initiatives for animal
welfare on page 2
INFO LETTER
MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS