How did you get involved in Red Tractor?
I spent about 22 years with the Forte group, originally on the technical/food safety side and latterly in procurement. After Forte, I moved back to the technical side and eventually became CEO of Assured Food Standards before launching Red Tractor in 2000.
How did the Red Tractor symbol come about?
In the 90s there were a number of very high profile food issues in the UK – BSE and salmonella in eggs to name but two – and several different organisations were set up to develop new quality standards for farmers and the supply chain to follow.
The Assured Food Standards organisation was later set up to bring all of these standards together under one heading. In the late 90s there was a mood amongst farmers and the supply chain to improve communications with the consumer and to explain clearly the provenance of certified foods. The Red Tractor logo was the ideal mechanism for us to do this and it started to appear on approved products in supermarkets in 2000.
Is Red Tractor a big organisation?
Actually, we’re a very small organisation but we, along with the recognised experts in their fields, set the standards for different levels of the supply chain to follow – from farmers to livestock transport; abattoirs to meat processors; vegetable producers and packers to foodservice companies.
There are then many commercial certification companies who are licensed to certify different organisations in the supply chain and that involves a lot of people – for example, there are probably over a thousand farm inspections completed every week.
How does the Red Tractor Scheme work?
When someone picks up a Red Tractor product in a supermarket or sees it on a foodservice menu, they can rest assured that every single step in the production of that item can be traced back to the original source – the farm. If you take the example of farmers, they would contact one of the certification companies and apply to join.
They would be inspected and either pass or be given a list of remedial actions to take in order to pass. Inspections look at a wide range of criteria including the general welfare of animals; access to food, water and shelter; certified feed sources; management of the farm; condition of the stock; medications used; and so on. It’s a very comprehensive list of criteria.
Similarly we have standards that organisations further down the chain must follow too. In order for the Red Tractor to appear on a product at the end of the supply chain, the product has to go through a complete and unbroken chain of certified producers.
How has the success of Red Tractor been measured?
We have a pretty strong set of standards, some of which have been in place for nearly 20 years now and have stood the test of time. There are a number of other criteria that we’re judged on - for example, 95% of UK milk production, over 80% of chicken meat and 70% of fruit and vegetables is from assured farms.
The value of goods sold with Red Tractor certification has grown enormously too, from a standing start in 2000 to £5billion in 2006 and we hit £10billion last year. Consumer recognition is also a key factor.
Our research tells us that consumers take the safety of food for granted but 80% of them recognise that the Red Tractor logo with its British flag stands for British products so we’re happy with that level of understanding.
Red Tractor products are also now part of the specification for procurement for the London Olympics!
Why should foodservice businesses get involved with Red Tractor?
At the moment, the majority of Red Tractor certified products are sold through retail but through our work with suppliers like Brakes and some of the foodservice companies, we have seen the amount of products sold to foodservice increase significantly.
Businesses tend to think about ethical sourcing when they notice their customers start asking about where their food came from, and this is a growing trend.
We don’t see Red Tractor as premium products. They are mainstream products available to all, and caterers buying a reasonable amount of these products can apply for Red Tractor accreditation and start telling their customers about it.
It may even give them an advantage over their competitors!
How do foodservice businesses get Red Tractor accreditation?
We’ve simplified the Red Tractor accreditation process significantly and it will cost an outlet about £100 a year to become certified. They can do it all online or call one of our team to discuss it.
We have a light but formal agreement with foodservice outlets that states they will use the Red Tractor logo correctly and observe the rules and we expect them to buy a reasonable amount of Red Tractor products.
We work with the supply chain to make sure we can monitor whether this is actually happening too because it’s not in anyone’s interests for a restaurant to say they use lots of Red Tractor ingredients when they clearly don’t. It needs to be more than just a PR exercise!
From our perspective, the more outlets selling Red Tractor goods the more potential there is for farmers and suppliers already accredited. That way, everyone benefits, including the consumer.
If Brakes customers were to take one message from Red Tractor, what would it be?
Red Tractor is providing a service not just for consumers but for foodservice too. The Red Tractor logo is available for you to use to help your customers recognise that your food is made from ingredients produced to the high standards they expect.
