Quality Dairy Programme Ensuring High Safety
How Arla’s farmers maintain high quality and safety in their products.
Farmers delivering to Denmark’s biggest producer of dairy, Arla have agreed to participate in a joint quality control programme – The Arla Farm. The program makes sure that all the farmers follow a safe milk production and handling procedure, with strict rules to ensure products are of the best quality and are produced in a safe environment. The four cornerstones of Arlagården are: Milk composition (e.g. taste), food safety (e.g. good hygiene), animal welfare and environmental considerations (e.g. minimum use of chemicals).
THE PROGRAMME MAKES SURE THAT ALL THE FARMERS FOLLOW A SAFE MILK PRODUCTION AND HANDLING PROCEDURE
A qualified farming consultant visits all the farmers on the programme to give advice and ideas for improvement – as well as making sure the agreements are kept. Every three years, controls are carried out on the farms. If the rules are not kept, their milk will be rejected by Arla until the problem is solved.
This is an excellent example of a focus on quality, traceability and sustainability in primary production.
The Arla Farm Progamme has been going since 2003 in Sweden and Denmark and is currently being rolled out in Germany.
Indication of the High Quality in the Danish Dairy Production
The Arla Farm Programme is another example of how several companies in the Danish food cluster create their own incentives to ensure a high quality in their products.
