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INFO LETTER
Meat and meat products
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Issue: 03/2013
Quality Assurance.
From farm to shop.
QS and its partners regularly provide in-
formation about quality assurance – from
the farm to the shop counter – at trade and
consumer fairs, for example in October and
November 2013 at the ANUGA in Cologne
and the Consumenta in Nuremberg. QS-live
ambassadors support this joint approach.
While Lore Mauler has years of experience,
Patrick Grevenig was just recently appoint-
ed in Cologne.
The
consumer fair Consumenta
has taken
place in Nuremberg from 26 October to 3 No-
vember. QS-live ambassador Lore Mauler ex-
plained to visitors there what companies do to
provide safe, high-quality food and what con-
sumers themselves can do at home to ensure
food safety. QS employees have also been pres-
ent at the fair to answer questions together with
the regional partners of the QAL Gesellschaft für
Qualitätssicherung in der Agrar- und Lebens-
mittelwirtschaft mbH (Society for Quality Assur-
ance in the Agriculture and Food Industry) and
Landwirtschaftliche Qualitätssicherung Bayern
(LQB, Agricultural Quality Assurance Bavaria).
The slogan of the joint stand is: “Confidence in
safe food from controlled origins”. The self-ser-
vice meat specialities on display are supplied by
scheme participant Netto-Markendiscount.
New QS-live ambassador
QS also promotes the common cause at trade
fairs, for example at the
food trade fair ANUGA,
which took place at the beginning of October in
Cologne. As part of the supporting programme
of the trade fair, the final of the Grips&Co trainee
competition “Germany’s best trainee in the food
retail” was held. The final, which was supported by
QS-live and hosted by RUNDSCHAU for the food
retail sector.
Patrick Grevenig
(see photo: second
from left) from the EDEKA Frischecenter Zurheide
in Dusseldorf triumphed over his competitors.
The 20-year-old was subsequently appointed
a
QS-live ambassador
for the next 12 months
by QS Managing Director Dr. Hermann-Josef
Nienhoff. An audience of approximately 1,200
watched the competition between the ten final-
ists, who qualified for the final round from over
20,000 participants after various preliminary
rounds. The Pro7 presenter Daniel Aminati com-
pered the event (photo: right).
QS AND ITS PARTNERS
COMMUNICATING QUALITY ASSURANCE TOGETHER
New QS-live ambassador
Patrick Grevenig, EDEKA Zurheide (2nd from l.)
Consumers need to be able to rely on the QS
certification mark, says QS-live ambassador
Josef Hupfer. The cattle farmer from Bavar-
ia has been a participant in the QS scheme
since 2003 and has been a Status I company
from the outset. For him, quality assurance
has a lot to do with conscientiousness.
Mr. Hupfer, why did you decide to partici-
pate in the QS scheme?
For me, QS is a kind of safety net. I can count on
the fact that the feed I buy is safe and has been
checked regularly. Then I know that there won’t
be any problems. However, the QS certificate
is also official confirmation that I comply with
all legal requirements and guidelines for good
professional practice. This is important for my
customers because, of course, they also want
to be sure that the animals that they buy from
me are healthy. The Landwirtschaftliche Qual-
itätssicherung Bayern (LQB, Agricultural Quality
Assurance Bavaria) is my coordinator and takes
care of all organisational details. It keeps track of
when my next audit is due, commissions a cer-
tification body, and so on. The LQB also takes
care of sampling for feed monitoring.
What does quality assurance mean to you?
For me, quality assurance means that I do my
job well and conscientiously. In addition to au-
tomatic feeding, I also manually give hay to my
animals. Every ani-
mal has to stand up
for this purpose and
I can see whether
they are doing well.
I know my animal
transporters
per-
sonally and I know
that they treat the
animals well. For a
nice piece of meat to
end up on my plate,
animals have to be
killed – there’s no
way around that. But until that time, we need to
act professionally and treat the animals fairly.
Why are you actively involved in QS-live?
I like to eat meat that comes from my own an-
imals so that I know what I am eating. When it
comes to food safety, consumers need to be
able to rely on the QS certification mark. If QS-
live can increase awareness of this, I’m happy to
be a part of that. I show where the animals come
from and all the things that farmers do to guar-
antee safe meat and good food. A lot of people
aren’t informed about these things nowadays. I
can see that when I have children from the kin-
dergarten visit my farm twice a year. They don’t
really know anything about animal farming.
There is a need for more education in this area.
What is special about your company?
I am always looking for new ideas on how to
further improve my company and processes. For
example, I have placed rubber mats on the floor
of the stall for the young animals. They work like
slatted floors but are more comfortable for the
animals to walk on. If farmers can help to make
animals more comfortable with these kinds of
relatively simple measures, then they should.
This improves the animals’ wellbeing.
You can learn more about Josef Hupfer and the
“QS-live quality assurance initiative” on the In-
ternet at www.qs-live.de
QS-LIVE AMBASSADOR AND SCHEME PARTICIPANT
CATTLE FARMER JOSEF HUPFER
Josef Hupfer – committed to food products from reliable sources