UK malt scheme gains international recognition
tracking scheme the backing it needs to assure its customers
they're getting the correct supplies.
Assured UK Malt (AUKM), an accreditation scheme, was launched two years ago by the Maltsters' Association of Great Britain in a bid to give brewers and distillers confidence about the supplies they were receiving from group's members.
The scheme was set up to help the tracking and traceability procedures to help ensure food safety. New laws on traceability went into effect throughout the EU on 1 January.
"Traceability has become very important in the EU," an AUKM spokesperson told FoodProductionDaily.com. "There are other schemes for assuring grain, so we decided to create the scheme for assuring malt as the next step to help our customers."
The scheme requires malt suppliers to follow hygienic food safety practices. They must be able trace the origin of the grain through the supply chain and guarantee it is not contaminated. The AUKM service has since expanded its service to include programmes on legality, good operational practice and product quality.
Recently, AUKM received accreditation from the International Accreditation Forum as a registered vetter of malt manufacturers. Accreditation reduces risk for business and its customers by assuring them that the vetting organisation is competent to carry out the work they undertake.
The AUKM standard requires that all barley is traceable from farm to the primary storage area, and from stored bulk to final delivery as malt. The barley must be assured under approved UK and EU grain accreditation schemes.
AUKM uses external auditors who visit and inspect every farm each year. The auditors also inspect all the required written records and verify that each farm as in compliance with the requirements of the standard before issuing its annual certificate.
About 25,000 farms are registered to provide malt under three AUKM assurance schemes in the UK.
Euan MacPherson, chairman of the Maltsters Association of Great Britain (MAGB), said the scheme helps UK suppliers to compete.
"This positive step forward comes at a difficult time for the industry in which issues include increasing energy costs, additional capacity coming online in an already oversupplied industry, particularly in Russia, and bilateral trade agreements that put UK maltsters at a disadvantage," he said.
The AUKM has 14 member companies, representing a total market share of 98 per cent. Six fall under the accreditation scheme. Members of the AUKM accreditation scheme include Bairds Malt, Coors Brewers, Crisp Malting, Greencore Malt, Muntons and Simpsons Malt.
The UK is the second largest malt-producing nation in the EU. In 2004 the country produced 1.6 million tonnes of malt, of which 403,000 tonnes was exported.
About 84 per cent of the malt used in the UK is accredited under the AUKM scheme. All of the exports fall under AUKM.
On 1 January this year EU laws on traceability that entered into force on 1 January 2005. The laws harmonises the bloc's requirements on the traceability of food products, the withdrawal of dangerous products from the market, operator responsibilities and requirements applicable to imports and exports.
The new mandatory traceability requirement applies to all food, animal feed, food-producing animals and all types of food chain operators from the farming sector to processing, transport, storage, distribution and retail to the consumer.
