Feedstuffs, by Rod Smith
April 27, 2009
Major pork producers move company and contract farms to PQA Plus certification and site status, noting that "it's the right thing to do."
Three of the leading U.S. pork producers/processors have made major commitments to the health and welfare of their hogs and the safety of their pork following recent announcements by Cargill Inc., Hormel Foods Corp. and Smithfield Foods Inc.
Cargill, the eighth-largest hog producer and fifth-largest pork processor in the U.S., announced earlier this month that it has instituted a policy to only procure hogs from producers who are certified in Pork Quality Assurance Plus (PQA Plus) and reported that its 450 contract growers are certified and that their farms have achieved PQA Plus site assessment status. Cargill also said it will not receive hogs from any trucker who is not certified in Transportation Quality Assurance (TQA).
Hormel, the fourth-largest pork processor in the U.S., made an announcement in December that it similarly will not purchase hogs from producers who are not certified in PQA Plus or delivered by truckers who are not certified in TQA (Feedstuffs, Jan. 5).
Murphy-Brown LLC, the hog production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods and the largest hog producer in the U.S., also announced earlier this month that it is moving to certify producers in PQA Plus and achieve site status at all of its 480 company-owned and 1,700 contract farms. Smithfield is the nation's largest pork processor.
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