The On-Farm Quality Assurance Standard has been developed to provide a framework for producers to be able to readily adopt quality assurance systems on their properties.

To become accredited to this on-farm Quality Assurance System, it is necessary to meet all relevant Elements of the LPA On-Farm Quality Assurance Standards.

There are five key Elements within the On-Farm Quality Assurance Standards, with each Module comprising one or more Elements. Each Module is colour coded to assist in identification of sections relevant to each module.

Modules 1 to 3 are classified as "standard" modules and they represent the minimum standard. That is, all producers seeking accreditation in the LPA QA program must meet the requirements of these standard modules.

Module 4 includes various optional modules that an accredited producer may elect to implement to assist them to meet customer requirements and/or to further differentiate their business.

The LPA Food Safety Program (Level 1) provides a set of guidelines and a National Vendor Declaration (NVD) to help producers declare the food safety status of their livestock. LPA Food Safety Program guidelines present producers with very basic animal production and record keeping requirements designed to ensure the production of safe food.

Producers wishing to move to the next level of LPA, being the On-Farm Quality Assurance program have already met some of the requirements through the implementation of the LPA Food Safety program. The Food Safety module in this program is based on the original standards of the LPA Food Safety program. Therefore as a producer already in the food safety program, you are already one third of the way to becoming accredited in quality assurance, it’s that easy.

For more information, go to the MLA LQS Website .