QS audit
The basis for the participation of beef cattle, pork and poultry keepers in the QS system is a successfully completed audit carried out by a neutral certification body. Each farmer determines themselves which branches of the business are to be audited. It is however, also possible to monitor the entire farm.
All of the requirements are summarised in the Agriculture, beef cattle, pork and poultry guideline.
The most important testing criteria for animal production are:
- Self auditing
- Animal identification
- Animal feed
- Animal friendly husbandry
- Animal health and veterinary stock care
- Cleaning and disinfection measures
- Participation in monitoring programmes (fattening pigs/poultry)
Table: Audit interval for the individual testing stages, depending on status 1
| Test stage QS status | Agriculture/production, animal transportation company | Animal feed, agricultural/production coordinators, slaughter/deboning, processing, meat wholesale, retail food trade (no cooperations), wholesale Fruit and vegetables | Butchery |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 3 years | 2 years | 1 year |
| II | 2 years | 1 year | 9 months |
| III | 1 year | 6 months | 6 months |
The frequency of the monitoring processes is determined according to the results of the last check. The better a company does, the longer the time period until the next audit. Companies for which deviations have been detected, must introduce and implement corrective measures to improve the production situation.
The maintenance of the QS criteria is monitored within the framework of the audit/neutral checks by authorised certification bodies. The certification bodies are employed by the coordinators.
Violations against the specifications of the QS system can lead to sanctions. The QS sanction council appointed by the QS executives decides the measures to be implemented based on the severity of the violation. These range from follow-up audits and an increased frequency of audits through to warnings and contractual penalties and even to the exclusion from the QS system.
Guidelines, Checklists and other Downloads can be found here.