Trends in "Eco-Friendly" Animal-Based Proteins: One Health Certification
Recent years have seen a growing interest in environmentally-friendly lifestyles, and many people are making conscious choices to select foods produced in a sustainable way. Meat, milk, eggs, and livestock production are staples in global diets, but many consumers are interested in how commercial production dominates agricultural land use. As a result, some animal-based protein producers may find value in strategies to reduce environmental impacts and improve animal welfare.
To help with this venture, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with representatives from animal agriculture, non-profit organizations, and universities, launched a new voluntary certification program in 2020. One Health Certification is an animal care program that defines species-specific guidelines for animal protein production practices.
What Does It Take to Get One Health Certified?
One Health Certification, launched in January 2020, is a voluntary food animal certification for animal-based producers who want to align their procedures to meet the program standards in animal care and raising before food production.
To be One Health Certified™, a company must complete three steps
- Phase One: Understand Standards and Develop a Quality Manual: For this step, you'll need to understand the protein-specific standards for the certification you want to pursue. Then, you can develop a quality manual that aligns with those standards.
- Phase Two: Participate in a USDA Desk Audit and Onsite Visit: After you submit all the necessary documents to USDA, auditors will conduct a review of your quality manual. Following that desk audit, USDA representatives will visit your site to ensure compliance with all health program standards.
- Phase Three: Finalize Certification Process: After passing all required audits, you'll receive information on how to finalize the certification payment and use the One Health Certified logo on your products.
All One Health Certified organizations must align with five core principles that cover the entire animal raising process and focus on animal welfare and health.
- Disease Prevention: Keeping animals free from disease is part of a comprehensive animal health plan. The veterinarian-designed One Health approach includes annual training for farm owners and caretakers to promote effective farm practices and encourage farmers to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Veterinary Care: This standard mandates the treatment of sick animals in the farmers' care. In the event of suspected infectious disease, the farmer must notify a licensed veterinarian and order appropriate treatment for the animal.
- Responsible Antibiotic Use: Overuse of antibiotics can cause antibiotic resistance in bacteria, which can impact both animal and human health. One Health requires that only veterinarians can prescribe antibiotics, with farmers administering them to animals as long as necessary.
- Animal Welfare: The best animal care practices stipulated in approved science-based animal welfare programs need to be followed from birth to harvest in the meat and poultry industry. Trained company personnel needs to perform internal audits to ensure that the farm complies with the animal welfare practices.
- Environmental Impact: To show commitment to sustainable livestock production, producers must also be aware of their environmental impact by calculating their carbon footprint for sustainable meat production and required nutrient management programs. This supports environmental stewardship practices and minimizes the impact of animal production on the environment.
Why is One Health Certification significant for the meat and poultry industry?
Being One Health Certified is a way to show commitment to responsible farming and human, animal, and environmental health. It helps identify scientific research needs and opportunities to advance the movement towards more sustainable animal-based protein production.
Aside from following the guidelines on animal welfare, meat farmers can also start evaluating the resources they use for production. This will pave the way to improved resource management. With the right approaches, food producers can reduce and minimize pressures on water, land, and climate.
Being One Health Certified won't only help the planet, it will also attract more consumers into buying the products. Initial research that involved 1,000 customers showed that knowing the five pillars of the program, 83% of the consumers will choose products with One Health Certified label, and over 50% would pay more for the product.
Test the Quality of Your Products
Following these sustainable practices need not change the quality of your meat products. Partner with our trusted food quality and safety experts to make sure your products retain their quality and nutritional value after the changes in your processes.
With more than 200,000 reliable analytical methods, Eurofins can characterize the safety, purity, composition, quality, and origin of your food products and ingredients. Further, these tests can detect allergens, contaminants, GMOs, and microbes in your animal products.