As part of the capacity building activity on the 'official' controls of record keeping, labeling and traceability of the “Technical assistance to improve the implementation of food safety standards and disease crisis preparedness” project funded by the EU Aid Programme for the Turkish Cypriot community, different sheep & goat farms and also cow farms from the Nicosia region were visited during the month of September 2022 by the project experts and the ‘official’ and authorized veterinarians.
The EU General Food Law traceability requirements in milk channeling start from primary production. All farm animals need to be registered and identified and all their movement needs to be registered as well. Farmers should have a record-keeping system for:
- results from tests on live animals;
- veterinary drugs used on the farm;
- other farm activities such as cleaning/hygiene, temperature control of raw milk, food safety parameters of raw milk, feed, and feeding.
Traceability information can be found in a variety of documents, including invoices, delivery documents, or receipts.
‘Official’ and authorized veterinarians and other staff as relevant, need to be able to verify the identification and traceability procedures and shortcomings. In the event of a foodborne or related outbreak, it is important to know and apply the relevant procedures and find all necessary information as fast as possible.
During the practical exercises on traceability, the flowchart prepared by the project was used in order to visualize different steps and activities in the milk value chain as well as to present all stakeholders of the milk channeling system and their roles and responsibilities. All animals (sheep, goats, and cattle) on a visited farm are individually identified and registered which is the first precondition for a reliable traceability system for raw milk collection. This animal identification system enables tracing back to their source (a birth-to-death identification system) and certification that details the health status of animals and any appropriate tests, treatments, vaccinations, or other procedures that have been or are being carried out.
The on-farm traceability exercise checks included: verification of records, invoices, information for produced feed, and other farm documents. It was also explained during the training that the farms need to establish relevant records and documents as follows: the occurrence of diseases that may affect the safety of dairy products, usage of chemicals, and storage of chemicals which are also part of the evidence for functional traceability.
During the on-site exercise, special attention was placed on farm record keeping on veterinary medicinal products and collection documents for milk collected by SÜTEK.
All Identified gaps will be properly addressed by improving the documentation and all data related to traceability will be updated.