Although it sometimes appears self-evident, feed and food safety form an extremely important strategic pillar for us as a producer. We continue to invest in quality assurance to guarantee this safety. Safety Guard, our unique quality system, helps assure the highest standards in terms of food safety in all production links. In this way, we can supply the high-quality, safe and nutritious protein-rich products that buyers expect of us.

Transparency and traceability

We are committed to guaranteeing transparency in the chain and traceable product information.

Safety Guard

Safety Guard, the VanDrie Group's quality system, facilitates the guarantees that are demanded worldwide in every link in the chain. Whether it concerns what happens in veal farming, during animal feed production, or at meat processing companies, Safety Guard standards are followed everywhere.

This quality system is based on ISO 22000. In 2024, the various subsidiaries of the VanDrie Group also held various certifications, including GMP+, IFS and ISO 14001. Vitaal Kalf (Fit Calf) is the quality system of the Dutch veal sector. This quality system includes rules for hygiene, calf health, animal welfare, feed quality, medicine use and registration.

Traceability throughout the chain

A unique feature of Safety Guard is its traceability system. We use this to keep track of exactly which raw materials are incorporated into animal feed, where they come from, and which farms the batches of animal feed go to. The calves have unique ear tag numbers that are always linked to the animal. In this way, we know at which farm the animal was born and raised. The unique code remains linked to the products at the meat processing companies. This allows each individual cut of meat to be traced back to an individual ingredient in the animal feed, for example.

Inspections, monitoring and internal audits

Our companies are inspected by national government organisations, such as the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) in the Netherlands, regularly or daily. The meat processing companies are under the permanent supervision of the NVWA. In addition, self-appointed internal auditors conduct internal audits of subsidiary animal feed and meat-producing subsidiaries via an established programme. A comprehensive three-year training plan was established for these auditors in 2022. In this way, the auditors’ knowledge and skills are kept up to date in a structured way in order to contribute to a process of continuous improvement. In addition, audits by clients or foreign governmental organisations take place very regularly.

HACCP

Hygiene is a crucial factor in meat production. Products of animal origin inevitably contain microorganisms. It is up to us to ensure our practice is set up in such a way that we work in accordance with the standards. Our meat-producing companies therefore operate in accordance with HACCP. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is a risk assessment for foodstuffs.

The companies have identified all potential hazards and indicated actual hazards. Critical control points (CCPs) have been established to this end. These are points in the process where the risk can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level. The critical boundaries, and how these boundaries are monitored, are indicated for each CCP. Corrective action has also been established. This is taken if monitoring shows a CCP is not sufficiently controlled. Verification is applied to periodically determine whether the HACCP strategy is effective.

Documentation and records are maintained for this. In practical terms, the HACCP safeguards the delivery of clean animals, the use of clean knives and equipment, proper sterilisation, the good personal hygiene of employees, intensive cleaning of production areas, and prevention of condensation, for example. We monitor our efforts to demonstrate our compliance on this theme. This involves taking many samples of products and the environment. For example, we take samples from carcasses to test for the presence of E-coli or salmonella.

Inspection results from independent certifying parties

Like other large and medium-sized slaughterhouses in the Netherlands, our Dutch meat-processing plants Ameco, ESA, Ekro and T. Boer & zn are under the permanent supervision of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). That means animal welfare and food safety are supervised.

There has been little scope at our Dutch meat processing companies over the past year to carry out risk assessments and to assess whether or not a recall is necessary on that basis. The reason for this is tightening up of the policy of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). Breaching a standard almost always leads to a recall nowadays. Even if thorough risk analyses show there is no food safety risk, for example, in the case of administrative issues. Of the recorded GFL notifications and possible recalls in 2024, it is also very likely that there was no increased risk to food safety. Reports were based primarily on the precautionary principle and/or related to the regulator's zero tolerance policy. In order to safeguard the quality of our products at all times and to remove any doubt about this completely, the VanDrie Group has of course implemented any request for notification and or recall. In doing so, buyers are always fully informed of the underlying cause.

Besides the regulator, there are several independent certifying bodies that check our processes for safeguarding of, among other things, traceability, food safety, hygienic working. By 2024, the audits relevant to us will have been successfully completed.