Within the Australia beef cattle industry, production methods have traditionally been referred to as 100% grassfed or 100% grainfed. Product label claims made under these production methods are verified through either the Pasturefed Cattle Assurance System or the National Feedlot Accreditation System.
Seeking to provide a meaningful production standard to differentiate the systems used by a large portion of beef cattle producers from these two systems, Ceres Agricultural Company engaged Schuster Consulting to help design and build a certification program to underpin product from cattle produced on a hybrid pasture and supplementary grain fed model.
On this project, Schuster Consulting was responsible for the development and implementation of a conformity assessment program designed to provide truth in labelling for retail product originating from a hybrid grain and grass fed production system. This program was required to align with the USDA’s Never Ever 3 and also ensure conformance with Australia’s traceability program National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), the food safety program Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) and the eating quality program Meat Standards Australia (MSA), as well as incorporating ISO 9001 Quality management systems and animal welfare requirements based.
In 2017, with Schuster Consulting Groups help, Ceres won ACCC approval for use of a ‘free range, grain and grass fed’ label claim on product in Australian supermarkets.
