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May 29- QUALITY MANAGEMENT TAKES CENTER STAGE WITH NEW
CERTIFICATION PROCESS: Novecta, LLC announces the development of the Quality Plus Management Standard (Quality Plus), a comprehensive quality standard that will allow grain buyers to certify the growing and handling processes affecting grain products.
Novecta, a joint venture company of the Illinois and Iowa Corn Growers
Associations, collaborated with two other industry organizations, the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) and Dennis Strayer & Associates, an agricultural industry consultant, to develop the
Quality Plus Management Standard.
Quality Plus has been recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA) Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) as a viable option for buyers interested in a comprehensive quality management system adopted at the grower level.
This set of standards will help both domestic and international buyers by providing
a validated system for grain. Quality Plus is patterned after ISO 9001 quality and 14000 environmental standards to make it easily recognized by consumers.
The Quality Plus can be tailored to fit individual needs in the areas of quality,
traceability, environmental controls, safety and security. Buyers can even provide input into the grower-developed program to assure that their product specifications are met.
“Our intent was to use producer input to design a very user-friendly system which
can be economically documented and initiated by a grower within a supply chain,” says Dennis Strayer, the principal author and one of the collaborators on the project.
Growers who successfully implement a quality management system based upon the
Quality Plus standard may submit it for review and certification from an accredited certifying agent recognized by USDA. AOSCA is currently taking steps to gain this recognition under the Guide 65 program available
through USDA.
According to Chet Boruff, AOSCA’s CEO, “Our organization has a long history of
working with quality systems, as we coordinate the seed certification, inspection, and auditing activities of Crop Improvement Associations and similar agencies in the US, Canada, and several other countries.
Providing a cost-effective option for auditing Quality Plus plans is another way that we can draw upon our experience to help producers and buyers within agricultural supply chains.”
Once a grower is certified under the Quality Plus Management Standard, buyers can
be assured that grower certification can help provide the required documentation.
An implementation manual designed to assist growers adopt the management standard
to their farming operations, including a narrative template and standardized reporting forms, is available from Novecta. For more information, contact www.novecta.com or call at (515) 334-7305.
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