Developing a new standard
for Australian eggs
Your questions answered
Why develop a new egg QA Standard?
Why comply with an egg QA Standard?
It is generally agreed that a well-recognised, industrywide Quality Assurance (QA) program for Australian eggs
will improve the credibility and success of our national
industry. However a recent review of the current QA
program showed that it needs an overhaul to achieve the
required levels of recognition and up-take across retailers,
regulators and consumers. As a result, a new egg QA
Standard is being developed.
As an egg business, you are already committed to meeting
certain standards to reassure the regulatory authorities,
your customers and members of the public that your eggs
are safe for human consumption. In today’s litigious society,
it is more important than ever that egg businesses protect
their respective operations, their families and staff, as well
as the egg industry as a whole.
At the same time, AECL wants to ensure that supporting
materials of the new QA Standard meet international
guidelines, meaning that Australia’s QA program achieves
similar initiatives to those adopted in countries around
the world. All supporting materials are therefore being
rewritten to reflect a new QA Standard for Australian
eggs and meet ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) reporting guidelines.
Whether you own a family-run farm or a major national
business, the new QA Standard will make it easier for
you to demonstrate that your eggs meet a nationally
accepted, fully accredited standard, increasing consumer
confidence in your product and the egg industry.
Attaining an egg QA Standard licence will endorse the
systems and processes that you run on-farm as meeting
best management practice.
The new national egg QA Standard will be your passport
to the market in the future. Whilst the current QA program
has had limited market exposure, the new egg QA
Standard will be extensively promoted to consumers
as being the eggs of choice on shelf.
In addition to a new name for the QA Standard, a new
Certification Trade Mark (CTM) has been developed,
based on consumer feedback, and is currently being
reviewed by the Trade Mark Office and IP Australia.
This leaflet aims to give you all the information you need
to understand the new QA Standard for Australian eggs,
the rationale behind its introduction and what you need
to do to ensure that your egg business is compliant.
The five key scopes covered by the new QA Standard are:
> Egg labelling
> Food safety
> Animal health and welfare
>Biosecurity
> Environmental management
as they relate to pullet growers, egg producers
and egg grading floors.
All five scopes are equally important, however
brand labelling provides a challenge to meet the laws,
regulations and standards that relate to egg labelling
compliance. The majority of public complaints are in
relation to and about the mis-use of egg cartons and/or
labels, so to provide you with greater guidance on egg
labelling, AECL has initiated an Egg Labelling Integrity
Panel (ELIP) which is explained in detail on the back page.
How the new standard will be administered
To manage the new QA Standard and retain ownership
of the egg industry’s quality assurance, AECL is forming
a wholly-owned subsidiary company to be the Certifying
Body, which will seek to gain accreditation from JAS-ANZ
(the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New
Zealand). Assuming it is successfully accredited, the
Certifying Body will itself be subject to audit annually
by JAS-ANZ.
that audits will, as far as possible, be combined to deliver
cost-efficiencies wherever possible, especially for egg
businesses in more remote regions.
Timing
The new egg QA Standard will be announced to egg
businesses around April 2011 prior to a public roll-out
in September 2011. Initially, it will run concurrently with
the existing program; however, by the end of 2011, the
existing program will be phased out and the new QA
Standard will be the sole benchmark against which
Australian eggs will be measured. All QA Certificates
of Licence that are current over this time will be valid
to the end of 2011.
As part of the structure of the subsidiary company,
a Certification Committee will be created to undertake
the operations and administration of the subsidiary
company. A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) exists
independently within the Certifying Body and has the
responsibility of the content of the egg QA Standard.
AECL
Certification
Body
Certification
Committee
Technical
Advisory
Committee
As with the current program, the new QA Standard
will require egg-producing businesses to undergo an
independent auditing process. To ensure all auditors are
properly qualified, trained and resourced, and that the
QA Standard is on a par with best-practice employed
in the rest of the world, AECL has exclusively appointed
global audit companies to undertake the audit management
of the new QA Standard. Qualified auditors from these
companies have already been undertaking quality
assurance audits on behalf of many Australian egg
businesses. They have also committed to ensuring
Once the timeline has been finalised, AECL will be
corresponding with all current QA licensees to inform
them of the transition to the new egg QA Standard.
Training for egg business employees and auditors will
commence soon after. The timing of the roll-out to
consumers has been set to give egg businesses time
to exhaust existing stocks of egg labels and promotional
materials and to introduce labelling with the new CTM
well before the QA Standard is made public.
Existing Licensees
If you are an existing Licensee, you won’t need to do
anything; you will be contacted, approximately three
months’ prior to the expiry of your existing certification,
by a representative from one of the nominated companies
to arrange your annual audit. Information gained
during the audit will be processed by the Certification
Committee, which will then deliver a decision on the
certification status of your business.
First-time Licensees
Businesses seeking to gain certification for the first
time should contact AECL using the details on the
opposite page.
‘The national egg Quality Assurance Standard
will be your passport to the market in the future.’
The benefits and implications for egg
producers
Benefits of the new QA Standard include a larger pool
of qualified auditors nationally. Audit company practice
ensures that auditors are rotated on a regular basis,
meaning your audit will be undertaken by a fresh pair
of eyes periodically.
Audit questions will also be more simply phrased,
enabling yes/no answers, thus removing grey areas
and meaning that an egg business will either meet the
QA Standard or not. An independent TAC, comprising
of egg industry representatives, stakeholders and
technical experts, each representing scopes of the
egg QA Standard, is charged with developing the
content of Australia’s new egg QA Standard.
It is imperative that the QA Standard is not only industry
responsive, but also market responsive to expectations
and demands by ever discerning consumers.
Although a twelve month audit regime will remain,
a proposed eighteen-month auditing cycle allows for
any corrective actions that may be necessary within
the certification period to be closed out or rectified. In
a tightening of the previous guidelines, major corrective
actions must be addressed within one month and minor
corrective actions within three months. No egg business
will be issued with a Certificate of Licence whilst there
are any outstanding corrective actions. At the end of the
eighteen-month period, if a corrective action is not closed
out or rectified, the respective business’s certification will
be deemed expired and cancelled.
Importantly, it is anticipated that the cost of egg audits
will not increase significantly; in fact, in many cases, the
cost will remain the same. AECL has negotiated set rates
with the global audit companies which has set a cap
on the fees that can be charged based on the size and
anticipated audit time of each egg individual business.
The Certifying Body will be closely monitoring the
implementation of the new system.
Can you afford not to have your passport
for entry to the market?
For enquiries about the new standard for Australian eggs,
please visit the AECL website at www.aecl.org
or contact:
Heather Palmer at AECL
Phone: 02 9409 6905
Email: [email protected]
Egg labelling
In 2010, AECL initiated the Egg Labelling Integrity Panel
(ELIP) to promote and assist the Australian egg industry
gain further depth in compliance and consistency when
it comes to egg carton labels. The ELIP has five members;
four independent industry experts and one AECL
representative.
The main objectives of the ELIP are:
•
to represent all egg producers
•
to guide and advise the egg industry in relation
to labelling
•
to discuss egg labelling issues as they relate to current
law, regulation and industry standards and guidelines
•
to consider all egg carton labelling
The ELIP also has the task of consulting with AECL to
form recommendations on aspects of egg labelling. ELIP
will review any label artwork and/or promotional materials
using the Heart Foundation ‘Tick’ logo and new egg QA
Standard CTM.
Please note that ELIP is happy to review your labels each
and every time you redesign or reprint and welcomes
www.aecl.org
all labels for critique regarding compliance and currency,
even if they do not contain a logo.
Labelling laws, regulations and industry standards
remain the same unless you are told otherwise.
Further information on labelling
AECL has developed an Egg Labelling Guide (ELG),
which contains more specific detail on Australian laws,
regulations and standards for egg producers. A copy
of the ELG may be downloaded from the AECL website.
The website will display the current version of the day.
(If you are a QA licensee then you will find a copy of the
ELG in the back of your QA Manual)
Also on the AECL website is a section on labelling and a
calculator which enables egg businesses to work out their
Nutritional Information Panel (NIP) based on egg number
and total minimum net weight of each pack, to ensure the
most recent data is reflected on each label.
The following ‘Quick Check’ graphic also provides
valuable guidance for egg labelling compliance,
it can also be downloaded from:
http://www.aecl.org/resources/egg-labelling