Bord Bia’s quality assurance (QA) schemes need to be updated if the standards are to retain the accreditation needed to make marketing claims on agri-food exports, Liam McCabe of Bord Bia has said.
Audits by the Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB) have raised non-compliances on Bord Bia QA standards with the body in recent years.
To rectify this, Bord Bia’s QA scheme need to be revised, and this update cannot be pushed out any further, farmers at an IFA meeting in Cootehill were told on Monday night.
Bord Bia is aiming to get draft QA schemes finalised before the year end to pilot on farms in early 2025. Feedback from this pilot will go to stakeholders, who will assess whether the changes are “too onerous or need to go a step further”.
The meeting also heard that an EU green claims directive coming down the tracks, as well as more overseas retailer demands, further justify updating the standard.
McCabe, Bord Bia’s agri sustainability manager, insisted that the approach to updating the standard focuses on leveraging progress already made by farmers without having to “add additional burden”.
There are currently around 70,000 farmer members of Bord Bia’s QA schemes who undergo 3,500 audits per month, with Bord Bia facing “significant scrutiny from INAB” when audited itself.
“I guess we have been using the updating of our standard for a number of years now as leverage to close out those non-compliances,” McCabe said.
Audit time
He said the changes will aim to minimise audit time and take a risk-based approach to completing audits, with previous areas of compliance and non-compliance fed into inspections. INAB raised further issues with Bord Bia’s beef and lamb QA schemes on carbon footprinting, McCabe said, with the body claiming “you don’t have to be a sustainable farmer to be part of our sustainability schemes”.
“That’s not saying that’s not the case on farms, but it just isn’t a requirement within the standard and there is no requirement around sustainability improvement.”
Key messages at Cootehill
Bord Bia is planning to update its farmer QA schemes to maintain INAB accreditation needed for marketing exports, and to keep pace with increased retailer demands.The farm organisations sitting on the scheme’s technical advisory committees will feed into the changes. Bord Bia has said the audit process will not change for farmers’ audit experience and is targeted at improving the messaging to wholesale buyers and consumers of QA produce.Farmers will not be audited on every area under the scheme under the proposed update, but on a risk-basis targeting areas of previous non-compliance.Pilot audits are expected in early 2025, with feedback to inform changes, if needed.
Bord Bia’s quality assurance (QA) schemes need to be updated if the standards are to retain the accreditation needed to make marketing claims on agri-food exports, Liam McCabe of Bord Bia has said.
Audits by the Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB) have raised non-compliances on Bord Bia QA standards with the body in recent years.
To rectify this, Bord Bia’s QA scheme need to be revised, and this update cannot be pushed out any further, farmers at an IFA meeting in Cootehill were told on Monday night.
Bord Bia is aiming to get draft QA schemes finalised before the year end to pilot on farms in early 2025. Feedback from this pilot will go to stakeholders, who will assess whether the changes are “too onerous or need to go a step further”.
The meeting also heard that an EU green claims directive coming down the tracks, as well as more overseas retailer demands, further justify updating the standard.
McCabe, Bord Bia’s agri sustainability manager, insisted that the approach to updating the standard focuses on leveraging progress already made by farmers without having to “add additional burden”.
There are currently around 70,000 farmer members of Bord Bia’s QA schemes who undergo 3,500 audits per month, with Bord Bia facing “significant scrutiny from INAB” when audited itself.
“I guess we have been using the updating of our standard for a number of years now as leverage to close out those non-compliances,” McCabe said.
Audit time
He said the changes will aim to minimise audit time and take a risk-based approach to completing audits, with previous areas of compliance and non-compliance fed into inspections. INAB raised further issues with Bord Bia’s beef and lamb QA schemes on carbon footprinting, McCabe said, with the body claiming “you don’t have to be a sustainable farmer to be part of our sustainability schemes”.
“That’s not saying that’s not the case on farms, but it just isn’t a requirement within the standard and there is no requirement around sustainability improvement.”
Key messages at Cootehill
Bord Bia is planning to update its farmer QA schemes to maintain INAB accreditation needed for marketing exports, and to keep pace with increased retailer demands.The farm organisations sitting on the scheme’s technical advisory committees will feed into the changes. Bord Bia has said the audit process will not change for farmers’ audit experience and is targeted at improving the messaging to wholesale buyers and consumers of QA produce.Farmers will not be audited on every area under the scheme under the proposed update, but on a risk-basis targeting areas of previous non-compliance.Pilot audits are expected in early 2025, with feedback to inform changes, if needed.
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