Established 15 years ago to help Australian farmers meet the requirements of emerging quality assurance standards, TQA Australia says that many farm businesses are now certified to one standard or another.
“For years, we travelled to every part of Australia, training growers and helping them to achieve the certification that their customers required,” said Daryl Connelly, TQA Australia’s consulting business development manager.
“As a not for profit organisation established by the agrifood industry, we are constantly trying to find ways to make compliance less difficult and less expensive for farmers.”
Mr Connelly said that playing a lead role in the development and roll-out of the Freshcare Food Safety and Quality Code of Practice, and seeing it recognised by Coles and Woolworths, was a significant achievement, and one that provided thousands of growers with a better option than some of the other available QA standards.
Far from bemoaning the fact that there are no longer hordes of primary producers queuing up for quality assurance training sessions, Mr Connelly said that he is excited by a new phenomenon.
“Now that certification to one of the food safety standards required by the major retailers is commonplace, savvy producer groups and industry organisations are talking to us about developing their own unique QA schemes to guarantee other characteristics of their products.”
Custom QA schemes
Usually developed in conjunction with a logo or brand designed to attract customer loyalty and recognition, he says that custom QA schemes are being developed to ensure products bearing these brands are what they say they are, and that they come from the region that the brand is associated with.
The Tasmanian Active Honey Group for example, engaged TQA Australia to develop a standard that would guarantee the integrity of Tasmanian therapeutic honey. In consultation with Honey Group members, TQA Australia developed rules outlining the product handling and testing procedures that beekeepers wishing to use the Certified Tasmanian Active Honey logo must follow.
Importantly, TQA Australia also provided the group with simple, practical documentation and tools to make audit preparation easier.
Assurances of quality
Mr Connelly says that the application for such systems are endless.
“Increasingly, producers wishing to market their own produce are having to collaborate with other producers to attain the necessary scale,” he said.
“A custom QA scheme ensures consistent practice and commitment across the group, and provides customers with assurance that the branded product they’re paying a premium for is the real deal.”
As well as providing assurances of quality and place of origin, Mr Connelly said that a custom QA scheme can be developed to back up almost any claim that a producer group may wish to market, such as its environmental credentials or artisanal production methods.
TQA Australia works across Australia, and also assists industry with environmental assurance, OHS, animal welfare and other issues.
For information contact Daryl: e-mail
This article is in the March 2013 issue of Tree Fruit
