The results of the test results from 2009:
The QS system is reliable/wide level of participation by the economy/coordination function increases in significance

Today, foodstuffs are safer, produced more reliably and better monitored than ever before. The QS system for fresh foodstuffs, which was founded almost ten years ago by leading organisations in the German food retail industry as a response to the BSE crisis, has come to this conclusion. The current evaluation is based on the results of all tests carried out in 2009 as well as the evaluation of the results from the last few years for the meat and meat products as well as fruit, vegetable and potatoes system chains. The QS database currently contains some 240,000 reports, carried out since the foundation of the organisation in 2001 and for the entire food chain, from animal feed manufacturers, through to farms and meat processing companies and right down to the markets of the food retail industry.

As a result of the wide spread economic participation and the close cooperation with all participants in the food chain QS is today able to take on coordination tasks for a multitude of social topics, for example, animal protection, sustainability or residue loads of fruit/vegetables.

The positive results of the 2009 tests

In 2009, QS carried out 41,926 system and sample audits. 32,433 took place in the meat and meat products system chain, 9,493 in the fruit, vegetables and potatoes chain. The conclusions drawn by these tests is positive and the results are clear. In both segment, 95% of the tested companies attained Status I, the highest level. Only 1.5 % of the tested companies in the meat and meat products chain and 3.6 % in the fruit and vegetables chain did not receive their authorisation. Sanctions proceedings were started against a total of 250 companies. The sanction fines pronounced by an independent sanction council ranged from 100 euros to 15,000 euros.

In addition to the regular system audits, at the end of the year, some risk-oriented 600 sample audits were carried out. Of these, 120 were carried out in the food retailers participating in the QS system. Compared to the previous year, the number of businesses that did not meet requirements had dropped considerably. At the majority of system partners, there were no serious complaints found.

Success of the monitoring programs

The additional monitoring programs which, in the QS system, monitor particularly sensitive points along the food production process, are working. Success can be seen the fight against salmonella in meat and meat products: The evaluation of over 7.5 million analysis results from the last few years confirms the constant reduction of the number of companies with a high salmonella entry risk. Positive result in the monitoring of toxic substances in animal feed: Since the introduction of obligatory result notifications in January 2008, in excess of 24,000 samples have been evaluated, and only very few (< 1 %) of those samples contained something to complain about. The results for the residue loads of fruit and vegetables is also pleasing: The producers are showing exemplary work and the loads have reduced considerably.

The positive test results provide good testimony to the system partners and the functional capability of the QS system, but are not an incentive to rest on our laurels. In order to describe the situation at the companies more accurately, increased evaluation and test modalities have been in place since the beginning of the year. In future, even small faults will have an influence on the risk-oriented evaluation of a system partner within the QS system.

Coordination function in the food chain

As a quality assurance system for all economic participants, QS takes into account all of the players on the stage, from animal feed right through to the shop. This great encouragement and the close cooperation of all participants in the value added chain means that the system now coordinates a multitude of topics relevant for the participants in the food chain. The results of the coordination efforts by QS, can be seen in milestones achieved in the previous year, such as the obligation to use painkillers when castrating piglets or the acceptance of QS audits by authorities when assessing the risks of farms. In addition, in 2009, we succeeded in pushing forwards the international networking of the European standard, in particular, in the animal feed sector.

QS: A success story both at home and abroad

Within the last five years, QS has not only more than doubled the number of system partners, currently at 124,884 companies (Stand April 2010) – it has also increased the number of foreign partners (11,653). More than two thirds of the beef and veal meat produced in Germany now comes from companies authorised to deliver into the QS system, the proportion of QS poultry as pork produced in Germany is now over 90 %.

QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH is a system owner and responsible for the QS system for foodstuffs. The standards defined by QS specify strict, traceable production criteria for all stages of the value-added chain, from the animal feed industry right through to the retailers. The cross-stage monitoring of these criteria, along with the traceability of the agricultural products and the foodstuffs made using these products are characteristic of the system. More than 104,000 companies in the animal feed, agriculture, slaughtering/deboning, processing, butchery, wholesale and food retail sectors, as well as 20,000 from the fresh fruit, vegetables and potato sectors have, thus far, chosen to take part in the QS system for foodstuffs.