Assured Food Standards

Assured Food Standards

Formation	13 June 2000
Legal status	Non-profit company
Purpose	Food production standards
Region served	England, Northern Ireland and Wales
Membership	Food producers, processors, contract caterers, wholesalers, food service and 78,000 farmers
Chief Executive	Jim Moseley
Main organ	AFS board (Chairman - Christine Tacon )
Parent organization	NFU
Affiliations	Ulster Farmers' Union, AHDB, , British Retail Consortium, Food and Drink Federation
Website	AFS

Assured Food Standards licenses the Red Tractor quality mark, a product certification programme that comprises a number of farm assurance schemes for food products, animal feed and fertilizer. From 2018 onwards, the scheme gained increased media attention after multiple organisations captured routine animal abuse happening at multiple Red Tractor assured farms.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

History[]

The Red Tractor scheme was launched in 2000 by the National Farmers Union of England and Wales, with the logo originally known as the Little Red Tractor, and also the British Farm Standard. It was launched on 13 June 2000.^[7]

Around the time of the launch, the NFU found in a survey that 70% of the public had no idea what type of food their local farmers tended to produce.

In 2005 the organisation kept its Red Tractor quality mark, but was renamed from "British Farm Standard" to the "Assured Food Standards".

In April 2009, Cains Brewery of Liverpool produced the first lager, Cains Export, to be accredited by the Red Tractor. Since June 2010, Carling cans of lager have displayed the logo, as the barley used has been certified.^[8]

Operations[]

1. The Union Flag in the Red Tractor logo indicates the food has been farmed, processed and packed in the United Kingdom.
2. Processed Vegetable Growers' Association Red Tractor cover an extensive range of products, including meat and poultry, dairy products, breakfast cereals, and fruit & vegetables.

All stages of food production are independently certified (inspected) to the Red Tractor standards before food can be labelled with the Red Tractor logo.

The Red Tractor Farm Assurance scheme is divided in different sectors:

• Pigs (Assured British Pigs) - 90% of British pig producers
• Dairy (Assured Dairy Farms - former National Dairy Farm Assured Scheme)
• Beef and Lamb
• Fresh produce
• Poultry (Assured Chicken Production. Members of the British Poultry Council will produce poultry meat to the Red Tractor standard, meaning they are kept in more humane surroundings.)
• Crops and sugar beet (Assured Combinable Crops Scheme)

Certification bodies the Red Tractor schemes work with include:

• NSF-CMi in Long Hanborough
• SAI Global in Milton Keynes (a spin off of Standards Australia)
• , in Lisburn

In 2009, around £10 billion of products were sold bearing the logo. A royalty fee is charged to bear the logo.

The union flag displayed as part of the Red Tractor logo gives a guarantee that the produce was farmed, processed and packed in the UK. To qualify as "farmed" animals must be born, reared and slaughtered in the UK.^[9] This is in contrast to a simple union flag logo without the Red Tractor which is often used to simply denote UK based processing-a BBC investigation in 2013 revealed that there was a less than 1 per cent chance that a pack of Tesco pork chops labelled as British came from the British Isles.^[10]

Limitations[]

The mark does not offer any guarantee the products have been produced in an environmentally sustainable way.^[11]

Controversies[]

From 2018 onwards, the scheme has been subject to increased media scrutiny after multiple organisations captured routine animal abuse happening at Red Tractor assured farms.

In July 2018 several UK media publications revealed serious cases of animal abuses at several farms that had passed recent inspections by the Assured Food Standards scheme.^[1]

In June 2019 three poultry farms in Lincolnshire belonging to Moy Park were found to be keeping animals in "utterly dismal conditions" where chicken carcasses were left to rot in sheds holding up to 30,000 birds. The farms, which supply meat to major British supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury's, were all certified under the Red Tractor scheme.^[2]

In August 2019 Hogwood Farm in Warwickshire was suspended from the Red Tractor scheme after videos emerged showing "terrified pigs struck with metal riding crops and hand tools" and "dead pigs dumped into rotting piles". Tesco suspended their relationship with the farm.^[3]

In August 2020 a pig farm in Leicestershire was dropped from the Red Tractor scheme after undercover footage showed sick pigs being left to die, painful conditions that had been left untreated and others with acute malnutrition.^[4]

In March 2021, Dispatches (TV programme) went undercover at a Moy Park chicken site. They found birds with "horrific injuries" and guidance issued to kill chicks deemed "lame" or "too small". Over 4000 chicks died or were culled during the 11 days of filming.^[12]

In May 2021 a Red Tractor certified pig farm in Aberdeenshire was suspended after secretly filmed videos showed showed piglets deemed too small or too weak for the abattoir being hammered to death by farm workers or being swung against a concrete floor to be killed.^[5]

In June 2021 footage was filmed at a pig farm in Yorkshire showing dying pigs left to rot among living and workers kicking animals too crippled to stand. The farm was removed from the Red Tractor schema and dropped by Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons.^[6]

In July 2021 secret cameras captured chickens that had died of thirst and dead birds left to rot at three Red Tractor approved sites. The chickens were being supplied for major British retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl and KFC.^[13]

In October 2021 the animal rights charity Viva! found "dead and wounded" turkeys amongst living ones at a farm that supplies Sainsbury's.^[14]

In Late 2021 undercover footage was shot on a Red Tractor assured farm by the BBC's investigative documentary series Panorama. Farmers were filmed beating cows with spades, dragging lame cows out of sheds using tractors and separating calves from their mothers.^[15]

See also[]

• Food Standards Agency
• Little Red Tractor, a children's cartoon on CBeebies
• Soil Association - certificates British organic food
• Sugarwise - certificates sugar claims in food and drink
• United Kingdom Accreditation Service
•  Food portal

References[]

External links[]

• Red Tractor
• Red Tractor Assurance and Farm and Processor information