LeAnn Saunders

Quality Systems Assessment (QSA) and Process Verified Programs (PVP) are both relatively new terms for the beef industry, but both are essential in meeting the demands of our domestic and export markets.

WHAT ARE THEY?
Both are types of authenticity management programs, which identify and then preserve certain traits and processes that are critical to a product. PVP and QSA are quality management systems that help ensure product characteristics. Their resulting marketing claims can be verified by process monitoring, verification, traceability and preservation activities. The intended value traits (genetics, origin of production, unique inputs or processing method) are preserved to ensure labeling accuracy.

Process Verified was initiated by the Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) to ensure companies could actually deliver products that met their product claims. Verification became necessary when meatcase branding started to explode, fueled by marketing claims such as “corn fed,” “raised in the Midwest,” “guaranteed tender,” and genetic-specific claims.

The challenge with these claims was the lack of standards and an inability to compare programs. The AMS created the Process Verified Program so they could audit marketing statements to ensure there was a system in place that would require you to “do what you said you were doing.”

USDA-AMS created a system that would standardize practices and ensure compliance to established standards and provided a verifiable marketing tool for companies. For example “corn fed” changed from simply a word on the package to verification that cattle were fed a diet of corn for a minimum of 100 days at 60 Mcal (of NEG).

Once a company is able to verify product/process claims, they are able to use the USDA Process Verified shield on marketing materials. The list of Process Verified companies is much longer today (see it at http://processverified.usda.gov), but the original pioneers included the Red Angus Feeder Calf Program, PM Beef Group and Premium Standard Farms.

Quality Systems Assessment, or QSA, is similar to USDA Process Verified except that it has a more limited scope. A Quality System meets essentially the same requirements, but only verifies one or two product attributes. It’s more limited in scope, yet is still modeled after ISO 9001, making it the perfect authenticity management program to meet current export market verification needs.

THE MARKET EFFECT OF BSE
December 23, 2003, changed the way the beef industry conducts business forever. Even though the industry understands the science behind BSE, the days of saying “because we know” just isn’t enough. Consumers are requiring more standards and better verification.

After December 23, 2003, the U.S. beef industry lost access to our valuable export markets. We quickly tried to find alternative uses for the products that were primarily exported (chuck-eye rolls, plates, short ribs, livers, etc.), but the industry has yet to develop markets that are equal to the value we lost through export.

RE-OPENING CLOSED MARKETS
In spring 2004, we negotiated agreements with Mexico and Canada to reopen their markets to our beef exports. The basic requirement was cattle must be verified to be fewer than 30 months of age. Beef Export Verification (BEV) instructions were also written for both countries, and specified product requirements had to be met using a USDA QSA Program. The age requirement can be assessed using dentition post mortem, so this became the tool most companies were using to determine age. Quickly, a two-tier marketing structure started to emerge – one for 30-month-and-older cattle and one for those younger than 30 months of age.

The United States began negotiations with Japan the moment we lost access in an attempt to re-open the market. In a presentation at the International Livestock Congress in Houston, Keith Belk of Colorado State University laid out the timeline of events (see Figure 1).

A series of high-level negotiations, technical team discussions and research has been ongoing since the market closure. They prompted a joint press statement from the U.S. and Japan on October 23, 2004, which would set the stage for re-opening the Japanese market.

The framework included:

(1) The U.S. would have to re-open imports of Japanese beef to the U.S.;

(2) The U.S. would require a QSA program of those companies wanting to export to Japan, requiring removal of all specified risk materials, and traceback to live animal production records that verify cattle are 20 months of age or fewer at harvest;

(3) The U.S. would continue studying the role of skeletal maturity as a tool for determining age;

(4) Ongoing consultation; and

(5) A series of domestic events required to change Japan’s policy from 100 percent BSE testing of all ages of animals to testing of cattle over a certain age.

Following the joint statement in October, the USDA issued a DRAFT-Beef Export Verification Instruction, which laid out the specified product requirements for Japan and enabled companies to jumpstart the process by developing a QSA program that would meet Japan’s requirements.

In a presentation given to packers, processors, feeders and producers in October, 2004, Jim Riva, chief, Audit, Review and Compliance Branch of AMS-USDA, explained the requirements for exporting beef to Japan. It was the first time QSA requirements for export (excluding NHTC – No-Hormone Treated Cattle Program – requirements for European export) extended beyond what the packing plant could verify with their programs.

Riva explained that for any company to export to Japan, they must meet the requirements of a QSA Program and be able to show production records that indicate beef comes from cattle that are 20 months of age or younger. The records used to verify this must meet at least one of the following criteria:

Individual animal age verification, Group animal age verification, or Animals enrolled in a USDA Process Verified Data service provider that includes age as one of their claims (and this age claim must be listed on the USDA’s Web site for the Process Verified Data Service Provider http://processverified.usda.gov/).

Just an affidavit program is not acceptable to Japan. The QSA program must address additional measures to verify animal age, including records and evidence of reviews to ensure ongoing compliance to the standards.

Since October, Taiwan and Egypt have re-opened exports. In both instances they included an age requirement of fewer than 30 months of age, provable through a QSA program.

Japan and the U.S. continue to move through the steps laid out in the October framework. The requirements are laid out, but many in the industry are waiting for additional proof. Some are stepping up to the plate, realizing that the market opportunity is immediate and there will be a huge demand for cattle that can be source and age verified. Companies that meet the requirements will have a marketing advantage.

GAINING QSA APPROVAL
The first two feedlots in the country to gain USDA QSA approval for source and age verification were Crist Feedyard and K.C. Feeders in Scott City, Kan.

Ty Rumsford, general manager of both yards, commented in the Garden City Telegram that they started the program because t hey realized that when the Japanese market opened, they will be looking specifically for source and age verification.

“I think it’s a good opportunity. The first who do it will reap the benefits,” Rumsford said.

He added that the program will take a little more time and effort for the feedyard in terms of paperwork and ranch audits.

“On the other hand, it will be very simple for the packer. It should be a good marketing tool,” he said.

QSA and PVP are voluntary marketing programs and are completely separate from discussions associating with NAIS, the National Animal Identification System. As a part of the QSA or PVP programs, you must address “identification” and “traceability.” Therefore, discussions regarding NAIS are pertinent for that specific element, but the requirements of a QSA and PVP program are further verification of additional product attributes and product attributes that go above and beyond what is required to conduct a traceback in the event of an animal disease.

Having a QSA program in place provides a company with many benefits. It helps to standardize practices and requires training and employee assessments, management support and input, customer satisfaction measurement and ongoing monitoring and measuring. In addition to providing a marketing opportunity, it supplies the structure to run a better, more efficient business. As domestic and export partners seek to add assurances for their customers, the demand for authenticity management programs will only increase. And as brands develop and mature, they will require more production-side verification systems.