Australia has been renowned for our high food safety standards and our pork quality is of the world’s highest calibre. At the closing of his twelfth-year term, the outgoing president of the West Australian Pork Producers’ Association (WAPPA) has encouraged the organisation to continue to look into ways to improving the quality assurance scheme.
During his final speech, Richard Evison implored 60 producers and industry stakeholders to give all their support to the Australian Pork Industry Quality (APIQ) program. The program has thus far provided food integrity and consumer confidence for the pork produced in Western Australia but Evison points out some flaws in the current scheme ;
- it could be developed to be more environmentally compliant
- with other authorising bodies doing a similar job, there is not only a risk of duplicating values but also causing a burden for the producers
- the unforeseeable growth in the pork industry stalls the planning and environmental approvals for many producers
The APIQ scheme is voluntary and is hopes to enhance the reputation of the Australian pork industry as a reliable supplier of safe, healthy and wholesome pork.
Are there other issues you can think of for the current APIQ scheme? Would you support a scheme such as this?
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