New Certification body confirmed for Red Tractor pigs scheme
19th Dec 2019 / By Alistair Driver
Red Tractor has agreed to start working with a new certification body for the pig and poultry assurance schemes, following SAI Global’s decision to pull out of the pigs scheme.
Lloyd’s Register (formerly Acoura) will initially just do pig inspections and will accept any farms currently registered with SAI that need to transfer their certification body. Red Tractor described this as good news as it gives pig farmers a choice of certification body, with NSF representing another option.
Red Tractor will be emailing all scheme members that registered with SAI to inform them about the development. Members have until January 31 to transfer from SAI to either Lloyds Register or to NSF.
SAI’s decision to stop routine assessments by the end of December left around 300 Red Tractor members needing to be transferred to a new certification body.
SAI said it would continue to do any inspections due before the end of the year and honour any unannounced spot checks that need to be done. Members who fall into this category will not be able to transfer to a new CB until these inspections have been done and all outstanding non-conformances signed off.
SAI has produced a Q&A on the process, which can be viewed here