QM-Milch, IKM and KKM Equivalent in Terms of Food Safety

The quality assurance systems for farm milk in Germany (QM-Milch), Belgium (Integrated Milk Quality Assurance, IKM) and the Netherlands (Milk Quality Chain, KKM) are equivalent in terms of food safety, Campina has reported. That is the conclusion of the certification agency Lloyd’s Register Netherlands, the German Milk Industry Association (MIV) reports. Lloyd’s conclusion is important for the international dairy co-operative Campina, which has dairy farmers, production companies and strong market positions in all three countries.

Lloyd’s conducted its assessment on commission from the national dairy organisations in Belgium (the Belgian Dairy Industry Confederation, BCZ), Germany (the Milk Industry Association, MIV) and the Netherlands (the Netherlands Dairy Organisation, NZO). The equivalence of quality systems is important for dairy businesses, in view of the international exchange of raw materials and products.

Campina sees Lloyd’s conclusion as valuable for the restructuring of its current national quality systems for farm milk to a single integrated Campina quality system. Campina started this restructuring programme in recent months, with the aim of realising a new Campina-specific quality system by the end of 2006: in fact, a single consistent system for the quality of farm milk and the production process on farms. As far as possible, Campina aims to match existing national regulations and facilities in the development of this system. Equivalence of regulations and systems makes an important contribution towards this.

All Campina dairy farmers in the Netherlands and Belgium are KKM or IKM-certified. In Germany, the Bauernverband (the German agricultural organisation), the Deutsche Raiffeisenverband (the association of co-operatives) and the MIV initiated QM-Milch in 2002. Campina expects almost all its German dairy farmers to the certified for QM-Milch in early 2006.