Sustainable supply chain solutions
Supply Chain Management (Food Safety)
In the late 1990’s the UK Feed Industry was reeling with the effects of the BSE crisis. It soon became clear that however hard it tried the industry could not produce safe feed without safe ingredients.
Working closely with the UK Feed Industry, AB Sustain developed the Feed Material Assurance Scheme (FEMAS), designed to operate in any geography from which ingredients might be sourced.
In line with AB Sustain’s principles, FEMAS evaluates risk along the length of the relevant supply chain and ensures adequate controls are in place to either remove these risks or reduce them to an acceptable level.
In 2001 FEMAS was adopted as a UK Feed Industry standard and today the FEMAS programme certifies hundreds of businesses across the UK, Europe, the Americas and Asia; this represents millions of tonnes of feed ingredients each year.
In 2001 a major UK retailer requested that FEMAS introduce a Non-GM Module. The module was developed, adopted by the UK Feed Industry and quickly received approval by all major UK retailers.
In 2006 the British Retail Consortium requested the assistance of the UK Feed Industry in developing a standard to ensure soya destined for animal feed in Europe was not causing deforestation in Brazil. Working with both BRC and the UK Feed Industry, AB Sustain designed and developed the FEMAS Responsible Procurement Module. In the first year of its existence over 1 million tonnes of Brazilian soybeans were exported from Brazil certified under the programme. Uniquely, the FEMAS Non-GM and Responsible Procurement modules are only certified in combination with a compatible and credible food safety standard. It seemed to AB Sustain it was unwise to resolve one specific issue relating to food chain products without ensuring food safety continued to be maintained.
The FEMAS programme is internationally recognised as a credible and robust assurance programme and is operated under EN45011/ISO 65 accreditation rules.
