10 December 2013

2 minute read

The meeting in Paris on 24 February is designed to help the sector move towards the production of safe, high quality beef, in a way that protects and improves the natural environment, the social and economic condition of farmers, their employees and local communities and safeguards the health and welfare of beef cattle.

The meeting in February follows the launch of the set of principles in Brussels last month, which were drawn up to provide an alignment to the initiatives previously developed or being developed in the beef supply chain.

The Beef Working Group said that by having one set of agreed principles, the beef sector can focus on delivering against these principles at an increased rate.

The principles, which range from measures on traceability through to feeding, biosecurity, economic viability and animal health welfare and genetics through to human right, business integrity and environmental issues are designed to provide the necessary sustainability assurances needed for companies’ supply chains.

They are designed to help those in the supply chain and reduce the need for individual companies to draw up their own criteria.

thereby negating the need for purchasers to develop and pursue their own sourcing programmes.

Keith Kenny, Senior Director, Supply Chain at McDonald’s Europe, said: “SAI Platform has successfully brought together producers and processors from across the supply chain, along with key retailers as knowledge exchange partners, to establish a set of Principles for Sustainable Beef Farming that we can all support.

“This is a significant achievement and the new Principles will be instrumental in aligning actions and accelerating progress towards a more sustainable beef supply
chain.

“The next step is to develop a set of Sustainable Beef Farming Practices to help farmers meet those Principles in a practical way and then widely promote and support their adoption. At the same time we are also aligning our work with the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.”

The Beef Working Group comprises of representatives from McDonald’s Europe, Unilever, Inalca, OSI Food Solutions UK, Bord Bia, McKey Food Service, Vion Food Group, Quality Meat Scotland, Livestock and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland, ABP, Beef and Lamb New Zealand, FAI Farms, Nestec, Dawn Meats, Novus International and EBLEX.

TheCattleSite News Desk