Belpork focuses on animal health and welfare
After 19 years of existence, Belpork, a pillar of Belgium pork industry, comprising all the stakeholders of the sector, from farm to fork, is maintaining a special focus on animal health and welfare to respond the consumer's need of information regarding the meat that ends up in its plate.
"Belpork always aims to play a leading role. We strive to set up projects that revolve around what is important to consumers— such as animal health, resistance to antibiotics, animal welfare and sustainability. Naturally, this changes over time. When Belpork started back in 2000, food safety and traceability were very important issues for the consumer. The establishment of the Certus quality label and the development of an own tracking system, TRACY, followed from that. Later, resistance to antibiotics became a key theme and in 2014 Belpork set up the very first database to register the use of antibiotics in the pig sector: the AB Register. At the moment there are ongoing projects concerning animal welfare and animal health," explained Liesbet Pluym, coordinator and quality adviser, Belpork, in a dialogue with the Belgian Meat Office. The animal welfare is already included in Belpork’s quality scheme but it will be developed further, according to Mrs. Pluym. A partnership with the Bristol University has been signed to further implement the Certus quality scheme for the Belgian pork sector. "They have international experience with quality systems and are renowned in the area of welfare assessment at company level. The changes to our Certus specifications have been drafted in collaboration with them and they also trained the inspectors. The results of this project will be phased into the Certus quality scheme. The additional standards ensuing from the evaluation of the specifications and screening of the primary sector will be implemented on 1 January 2020. This amongst other things concerns registering the mortality of the various categories of animals, the evaluation of tail biting, the assessment of exploratory behaviour of the pigs and a compulsory culling policy for which Belpork will draw up a basic version. This project will continue into 2020 and will be further implemented in phases in the coming years," she added.
Also, one of Belpork's main objectives is to create added value in the Belgian pork industry and keeps doing that by monitoring different stages of production to cover all the phases in the supply-chain. "Belpork creates added value in the pig pillar by amongst other things monitoring quality labels and setting up projects that reach beyond the chain. As Belpork we manage two labels: Certus (for fresh pork) and Meesterlyck (for cooked ham and dried ham). Both labels guarantee a quality, flavoursome product for the consumer that stands apart from standard pork and is competitive both on the domestic and the international markets. We achieve the difference in quality by acting on various issues such as animal welfare, (animal) health, food safety, traceability and meat quality. The accompanying specifications impose extra-statutory requirements with regard to these issues for each link in the pig chain. In this way, everyone in the chain does their bit to arrive at a high-quality product.
In addition, we support scientific projects and set up our projects such to monitor the use of antibiotics. The result of these projects is then included in the specifications if relevant,", stated Liesbet Pluym.
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