Food Testing

Our Farm Network can make your farm more profitable through improved efficiency and healthier livestock.
On-Farm Quality Management Programmes for Milk Producers cover four main areas:

Checking of farm cleaning systems
Solving milk quality problems
Identifying animal health problems
Identifying record keeping deficiencies

We can help farmers to implement a management plan to bring these four areas up to an approved or higher standard.

AsureQuality performs pre-start assessments to ensure your dairy farm has been properly set-up. The approval ensures all key steps of the dairy build are compliant. This includes assessing the initial site for construction, monitoring the dairy building process, final sign-off and ensuring equipment has been properly fitted.

Farm-Dairy Assessment

AsureQuality conducts an annual Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) assessment on every dairy farm in the lower North Island and upper South Island to ensure minimum standards in sanitation, structures and facilities, regulatory requirements, quality management and environmental issues are met.

Milk machine efficiency tests

Milking plants need to be tested at least annually to minimise any loss of production or milk quality defects through teat damage or mastitis, it is recommended that the We can provide independent and accurate assessments of milking plant efficiency. Any minor faults will be corrected and rechecked during the test. A comprehensive report detailing performance and recommendations is provided.

Milk component audit

Dairy Companies contract AsureQuality to randomly select farms and test the make-up of milk samples to ensure the dairy farmer is being paid fairly.

Grade trace-backs

We work alongside farmers to fix the problems associated with poor milk quality. This includes assessing all the points in the diagram below, finding faults and making recommendations on how the grade can be lifted.

Inhibitory substance trace-backs

When a milk test is positive to an inhibitory substance as indicated from a dairy factory, AsureQuality is able to audit dairy systems and records. The enables them to find out the source and then the cause of the contamination and establish how it can be prevented from reoccurring. An inhibitory substance can be a whole milk failure or a colostrum failure and usually due to the milk from a cow under treatment of anti-biotics being mixed into the vat for tanker collection.

Testing of suspected milk contamination

If you suspect your milk has been contaminated by antibiotics, we are able to conduct rapid detection tests (Charm test and Delvo test) to confirm whether contamination has occurred.

For testing, you can either bring the suspected contaminated milk into an AsureQuality office in a clean container to have it tested there, or we can go out to your farm and test it there.

Soil DDT sampling

AsureQuality can provide soil DDT testing in the South Island, as a condition to dairy conversion and approval to supply. This service is provided for any farmer but predominantly is utilised by those farmers converting farms to Dairy operations or for Dairy grazing. The determined DDT levels will indicate the suitability of the land for the intended enterprise.

Stock crate quality assurance

We certify stock crates to an industry standard of animal welfare, hygiene and product quality under the auspices of the Road Transport Forum. This standard is used by major meat processors as part of their 'paddock to plate' quality assurance programmes.

Farm audits for meat / wool Companies

AsureQuality perform on-farm audits for various customers ranging from the meat industry to the wool industry. All farm audits are completed by suitably qualified AsureQuality auditors and coverage is across New Zealand and parts of Australia.

Some customers have their farm assurance programmes recognised to ISO/IEC Guide 65, which is an International standard administered by JAS-ANZ. As part of this standard AsureQuality make a certification decision based on the audit findings.

Our customers include:

AFFCO
Alliance
Bernard Matthews
CERCO
CMP
Five Star Beef
New Zealand Association of Game Estates
Riverlands
Silver Fern Farms
Te Kuiti Meat Processors
The New Zealand Merino Company

Back to the top

Please wait...