Food Quality
At Beef Northwest, we take food quality seriously.
BNW’s commitment to food safety and animal care and handling has resulted in our enrollment in the Progressive Beef Food Safety Program, which is administered by a third party, the Beef Marketing Group (BMG).
The Beef Marketing Group developed Progressive Beef with the assistance of an advisory board from Kansas State University.
BMG recently developed an industry-leading pre-harvest Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program designed to address food safety hazards at the feedlot.
As part of this program, BNW has implemented industry-leading animal husbandry practices as a part of our overall commitment to animal welfare, compassion and handling practices.
A pre-harvest HACCP program deals with all factors affecting incoming cattle and feed ingredients, as well as everyday activities.
A primary part of the system is documentation and verification protocol, which allows us to ensure our products are produced in a safe environment.
A key component of the program is providing a safe and humane environment for cattle. The Progressive Beef standardized processes and procedures focus on employee training to maintain proper animal handling and welfare practices. If it is discovered that an employee is willfully mistreating, harming, or neglecting animal care they are terminated.
HACCP Principles
The objective of HACCP is to make the food we produce as safe and high in quality as possible. HACCP is focused on the prevention of problems in order to assure the production of safe food products.
At the foundation of HACCP is the use of sound, scientific practices and cutting-edge technology to plan, control, and document the production of food.
This is accomplished using the seven principles in which HACCP is based.
BNW applies principles of HACCP to all phases of our feeding operations, including everything from evaluation and documentation of feed ingredients, animal health protocols, animal handling practices, livestock transport and marketing.
Our HACCP program includes standard operating procedures (SOPs) that must be followed daily to address food safety issues.
Our program deals with every aspect of daily activities at a feedlot such as: receiving and processing cattle; receiving and storage of feedstuffs; feeding; treatment of sick cattle; pest control; manure management; facility cleanliness; and shipping cattle.
Additionally, we maintain log books that are filled out daily to record the SOPs. BNW’s Progressive Beef program also includes a Cattle Care Guide to address animal handling and welfare.
Beef Northwest feedyards are also Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certified and ensure that bio-security measures are implemented and adhered to as part of an overall integrated program
BQA is a voluntary quality assurance program implemented to maximize consumer confidence and acceptance of beef by focusing the producers’ attention to daily production practices that influence the safety, wholesomeness and quality of beef and beef products.
We have developed a series of standard operating procedures to ensure food quality and animal care and handling. All of our practices are supported by a documented system that is verified and audited twice yearly by an independent third-party. We take food quality and animal welfare seriously, and have the documentation to prove it.
