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Quality management of milk (QM milk)

German standardised guideline for milk production

The production of foodstuffs demands the highest of quality and safety standards for both the product and the production process. Existing quality-assurance systems and the constant enhancement of such systems are helping to continuously improve the already positive image which milk and dairy products enjoy among consumers. Quality assurance in the area of milk production and processing is based on an extensive platform of legal stipulations and controls (Milk Regulation, Milk Quality Regulation, EC and national food laws, etc.), with self-imposed quality programmes additionally introduced by the commercial concerns involved. The quality-assurance and quality-management systems developed in recent years are centred around the principle of self-responsibility and self-control.

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Quality management of milk secures markets

- from producer to consumer -
Dr Gisela Runge, managing director and scientific head of the Association of Dairy Producers in Bonn

Exemplary quality management of milk
The dairy industry has for years led the field in the sector for quality and hygiene, undertaking comprehensive efforts to honour its responsibility to provide safe products of excellent quality. Which is why milk and dairy products have a good reputation among consumers and supervisory authorities alike. This has been, and continues to be, achieved through long years of co-operation among the various players along the production chain.

Animal feed, breeding, product extraction (of raw milk), slaughtering, delivery to processing facilities, food processing, trading, consumers
Seeds, cultivation, storage, feed processing or semi-finished product manufacturing, own feeding prior to on-forwarding to manufacturers, trading, users

Each link in the chain is in itself and as a whole responsible for the safety and quality of the products produced on the respective level. The various crises of recent years have served to substantiate the validity of the dairy industry's holistic approach, especially with respect to upstream feeding operations.

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Framework Agreement on Animal Feed

on the binding adherence to due diligence with regard the production of raw milk to be used in the manufacturing of milk and dairy products.

It is imperative for the dairy industry that, as part of its comprehensive quality-assurance assignment – which includes the controlling of incoming raw material – only such feed is used for milk-producing livestock which, in addition to complying with the standards laid out by the regulations on animal feed, is subjected to a system of quality management and is safe for milk production.

The safety of dairy products is the responsibility not only of the dairy manufacturers, but also of dairy farmers and feed suppliers, since a close correlation exists between animal feed and foodstuffs for human consumption. From the vantage point of consumer protection, the animal-feed chain must be viewed as an upstream link in the food-production chain and must be controlled accordingly.

A reciprocal supply relationship makes it advisable, indeed necessitates, that milk producers, manufacturers and the feed industry (including traders) share information and provide mutual support, regardless of the actual relationship. A country-wide system of rapid information exchange is called for.

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