The Rural Voice, 2002-01, Page 38Gearing up for the
quality assurance
program in dairy
By Jeromy Ten Hag, Milk Quality
Assurance Program Lead,
OMAFRA, Fergus Resource
Centre
Consumers demand a high quality
and safe food supply. More and
more processors have begun
Advice
implementing quality assurances
programs to better meet consumer
demands. Producers of many food
commodities recognize the increased
importance of quality and safety in
food, and have started to implement
quality assurance programs at the
farm level. The Ontario dairy
industry is also starting down the
road of the quality assurance program
being a necessary part of the farm
operation.
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34 THE RURAL VOICE
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(CQM) program is a preventative
type approach to on-farm food safety
problems that uses Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point (HACCP)
principles. A national writing team
of dairy professionals and producers
developed the CQM program. In a
nutshell, the CQM program employs
these key principles:
• Critical control points (CCP) are
points or processes, which if not
controlled properly, will cause
irreversible damage to the product.
Monitoring of these processes is
essential to maintain quality, and the
monitoring is done largely by
maintaining accurate and timely
records. The CCP's identified
include; the use of livestock
medicines and other chemicals, the
cooling and storage of milk,
sanitation of equipment, water
quality for cleaning of milk contact
surfaces, and the administration of
livestock medicines.
• Standard operating procedures
(SOP) are a documented set of
instructions to carry out milking
operation processes that will have an
impact on the quality of milk
produced or the meat of cull animals.
The SOPs should be based on proven
management practices that prevent
on-farm food safety problems. As an
example, the steps used for the
treatment of animals with antibiotics
and how those animals will be
milked would need to be recorded.
• Corrective action plans need to 5e
in place and documented to correct a
CCP that falls outside an acceptable
range. For example, if the milk were
not cooled properly in the bulk tank,
a plan for the proper disposal of the
bad milk and the steps to be taken to
avoid similar problems in the future
would be required.
The Dairy Farmers' of Ontario
(DFO) will be responsible for
implementing the CQM program for
Ontario dairy producers. The initial
requirements for the CQM program
will include the installation of a time
temperature recorder that measures
bulk tank and pipeline wash
temperatures, written SOPs for
animal identification, procedures
involved in the milking process, and
the treatment of animals, as well as