PAACO Certifies Two New Animal Welfare Audits The Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization, Inc. (PAACO) has granted Certified Audit status to two audit tools within the past month. The two audits that were reviewed by a PAACO-appointed panel and certified as having met the organization’s 12 minimum criteria are FACTA LLC’s Humane Certified Animal Welfare Audit Program – Broiler and the Common Swine Industry Audit produced by a coalition of swine industry stakeholders involving customers, suppliers and producers and facilitated by the National Pork Board. Certifying audit instruments is one of the services offered by PAACO, whose welfare auditor trainings and certification of auditors for meat plants and poultry have become an industry standard. In order to become PAACO-certified, the program must be submitted for a third-party review by a species-specific panel of animal welfare experts appointed by PAACO and overseen by a PAACO representative. This group initially critiques the audit for improvements and primarily evaluates it to determine if the audit meets all 12 minimum criteria established by the PAACO board of directors for a certifiable audit instrument. These criteria apply to all meat animal species. PAACO’s board of directors makes the final determination to grant certification status. All certified audits must be reviewed annually and stay current with welfare criteria and standards to maintain certification status. Encompassing the entire spectrum of broiler production from hatchery to slaughter, the broiler audit is the third such program FACTA has sent through the PAACO process. Their two previously certified audits are for swine and turkeys. The Common Swine Industry audit covers on-farm animal welfare for swine from breeding, birth, rearing to marketing. This new audit, along with the PAACO-certified AMI meat plant welfare audit now expands the scope of swine welfare validation/auditing to cover the front end of the swine production chain through slaughter. “We are pleased to grant certified status to these two audits,” states PAACO Chairman Terry Mader, PhD. “FACTA’s continued pursuit of PAACO certification for their programs emphasizes their recognition of the value and credibility of the PAACO designation. Certification of the Common Swine Industry Audit demonstrates the industry-wide credibility PAACO brings to that audit tool also.” Information on these and other species with certified audits and programs, as well as the 12 core criteria for certified audits, may be found on the “Certification” page of the PAACO website, animalauditor.org. For more information, please visit factallc.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 17:34:08 +0000
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