IN Brief:
- Red Tractor has introduced four optional arrangements for meat and poultry processors already holding overlapping certifications.
- Joint BRCGS and RTMPP assessments may support reduced traceability work where specified eligibility conditions are met.
- An eligible site can move its separate Traceability Challenge from annual to biennial frequency under stated controls.
Red Tractor has introduced four voluntary measures designed to reduce overlapping assurance assessments for meat and poultry processing businesses. The options cover joint audits with BRCGS Food Safety, removal of specified duplicate traceability assessments, less frequent Traceability Challenges for qualifying sites, and revisions to pork quality certification requirements. Each route is subject to different conditions, and the changes do not remove the processing and traceability obligations that underpin the schemes.
The first measure allows eligible processors to combine a Red Tractor Meat and Poultry Processing assessment, known as RTMPP, with a BRCGS Food Safety audit where both certifications are held through the same certification body. A combined visit can address overlapping checks within the assessment arrangements rather than requiring two entirely separate processes. Red Tractor intends to contact RTMPP members about this opportunity and advise businesses using different certification bodies where changes could allow joint assessments.
Processors holding both certificates can only use the joint assessment route where the relevant certification body can carry out both audits. Businesses using different bodies may need to change their arrangements before a combined visit is possible. Each standard’s requirements still apply, and the assessor must examine the necessary evidence even when the visit is shared. Red Tractor is contacting RTMPP members about the arrangement rather than treating every certified facility as automatically eligible.
RTMPP members that also hold a Red Tractor licence and receive joint BRCGS and RTMPP assessments can, under specified conditions, opt out of the separate Red Tractor Traceability and Integrity module assessment when that work duplicates existing checks. Product identification, origin records and material movements through the plant remain subject to the underlying requirements. The change concerns the repetition of assurance assessments, not a waiver of traceability controls or an exemption from demonstrating them when required.
Eligible RTMPP-certified sites that are also Red Tractor licensees may reduce the separate Traceability Challenge from an annual assessment to one every two years. The site must be part of a Red Tractor licensed group and must have received a joint unannounced BRCGS and RTMPP assessment carrying a BRCGS grade in the specified AA*–B* range. This route is narrower than simply holding the two certificates, and processors must check the full conditions before altering their assurance schedules.
To qualify for the longer Traceability Challenge interval, a processor must also allow Red Tractor to review its BRCGS assessment report. That report must contain no traceability-related BRCGS non-conformances. The scheme is using the reported performance of an existing independent assessment as part of the eligibility test for a less frequent separate challenge. A processor whose BRCGS report records a relevant failure cannot assume the reduced frequency applies.
For pork licensees, Red Tractor has removed certification requirements against specified British Meat Processors Association Quality Pork Charter modules and equivalent RTMPP pork quality modules. The revision reduces the need to maintain particular overlapping certifications while keeping the remaining scheme assurance criteria. It is distinct from the joint BRCGS assessment and Traceability Challenge options, which have different eligibility rules.
Meat and poultry traceability depends on reliable identification and records through receipt, processing, packing and dispatch. At each stage, a processor needs to retain the information required to follow materials, batches and finished products through its operation. Separate assurance schemes may ask to examine parts of the same system. Red Tractor’s new measures allow evidence from qualifying assessments to be recognised more efficiently, while continuing to require that the underlying information remains accessible and accurate.
The changes follow work with processing businesses and representative organisations. Joanna King, Red Tractor’s head of partnerships and supply chain assurance, described the options as voluntary; industry responses from the British Meat Processors Association and British Poultry Council welcomed the effort to recognise existing certification work. The participating schemes and certification bodies will still control how the revised arrangements are implemented at individual plants.
Processors can evaluate the changes against their current Red Tractor licences, RTMPP status, certification body and recent BRCGS results. Red Tractor has named Amy Panton, technical manager for meat and poultry supply chain assurance, as its point of contact for members considering the options. A shared assessment may reduce duplicated visits, whereas the biennial Traceability Challenge is available only to sites meeting the narrower grade, report-access and conformity tests. Neither option changes the need to operate a verifiable traceability system.
