Where did my steak come from.

Old Boar

Member
Location
West Wales
The following from one of the emails from RT:-

For you interest as an example, these are the steps in the assurance chain for beef, at each step the correct animal welfare and/or food hygiene certificates must be held as well as being a Red Tractor licensee or scheme member. Each step is accompanied by documentation invoices, receipts, certificates etc verifying the provenance.


• Red Tractor Farm Assurance member
• Transport
• Abattoir
• Cutting plant
• Catering butcher – (we don’t license individual butchers or deli counters as it would not be possible to confirm the eligibility of the meat)
• Processing uncooked i.e. mince
• Processing cooked i.e. cooked sliced meat
• Wholesaler


So it looks like the certification and document trail ends at the wholesaler. This is not what has been advertised.
The Red Tractor logo confirms that our independent assessors have checked food or drink meets our comprehensive standards, from farms to fork.

I am not after the farm (a 50 mile radius would do) but I am taking this further as what they are advertising is not true. I am giving RT one more chance to explain this discrepancy. I will keep you updated when I hear something.
 

RushesToo

Member
Location
Fingringhoe
The following from one of the emails from RT:-

For you interest as an example, these are the steps in the assurance chain for beef, at each step the correct animal welfare and/or food hygiene certificates must be held as well as being a Red Tractor licensee or scheme member. Each step is accompanied by documentation invoices, receipts, certificates etc verifying the provenance.


• Red Tractor Farm Assurance member
• Transport
• Abattoir
• Cutting plant
• Catering butcher – (we don’t license individual butchers or deli counters as it would not be possible to confirm the eligibility of the meat)
• Processing uncooked i.e. mince
• Processing cooked i.e. cooked sliced meat
• Wholesaler


So it looks like the certification and document trail ends at the wholesaler. This is not what has been advertised.
The Red Tractor logo confirms that our independent assessors have checked food or drink meets our comprehensive standards, from farms to fork.

I am not after the farm (a 50 mile radius would do) but I am taking this further as what they are advertising is not true. I am giving RT one more chance to explain this discrepancy. I will keep you updated when I hear something.
From their website this is a clear breach of the advertising standards. They should desire enormously to prove they can match the words on their website.

So before they rein in their advertising I have taken a screen shot:
upload_2017-8-11_22-44-27.png


Prove it or remove it.
 

Old Boar

Member
Location
West Wales
The problem is that RT themselves probably can track back to the farm, but cannot track forward from the wholesaler. The consumer is supposed to accept that they can get the info from RT when in fact they cannot. The consumer owns the fork, but the traceability stops at the wholesaler.
 

RushesToo

Member
Location
Fingringhoe
@Old Boar given the time I won't PM you with the message.
WELL BLOODY DONE. They said it, you followed it up.
For non compliance they rain down all manner of pain.

Their turn for the brown stuff hitting the whirly thing - doesn't smell so good when it's coming your way.







Hate to rain on your parade, but you may yet have things to do to completely sort this out .......
 

llamedos

New Member
The following from one of the emails from RT:-

For you interest as an example, these are the steps in the assurance chain for beef, at each step the correct animal welfare and/or food hygiene certificates must be held as well as being a Red Tractor licensee or scheme member. Each step is accompanied by documentation invoices, receipts, certificates etc verifying the provenance.


• Red Tractor Farm Assurance member
• Transport
• Abattoir
• Cutting plant
• Catering butcher – (we don’t license individual butchers or deli counters as it would not be possible to confirm the eligibility of the meat)
• Processing uncooked i.e. mince
• Processing cooked i.e. cooked sliced meat
• Wholesaler


So it looks like the certification and document trail ends at the wholesaler. This is not what has been advertised.
The Red Tractor logo confirms that our independent assessors have checked food or drink meets our comprehensive standards, from farms to fork.

I am not after the farm (a 50 mile radius would do) but I am taking this further as what they are advertising is not true. I am giving RT one more chance to explain this discrepancy. I will keep you updated when I hear something.


Good to read we both get the same result :rolleyes:
 

Tamar

Member
It's surprising none of the farming press has taken up this story....... they appear to read TFF. :scratchhead:


Oh, hang on........RT pay them hush money by advertising with them ........don't expect they want to kill the golden goose !! :facepalm::whistle:
 

willdevon

Member
Location
devon
Why not make a formal written complaint to your local trading standards office was well as the Advertising Standards Authority?
RT are clearly misrepresenting matters in their Farm to Fork advertising. How about a RT farmer re-claiming all their payments on the basis that they have been obtained by RT's misleading and dishonest representations?
 

wr.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Breconshire
Why not make a formal written complaint to your local trading standards office was well as the Advertising Standards Authority?
RT are clearly misrepresenting matters in their Farm to Fork advertising. How about a RT farmer re-claiming all their payments on the basis that they have been obtained by RT's misleading and dishonest representations?

Could a letter be written by one of our clever members :whistle: which we could all print off and send to TS?
 

George14

New Member
Update: I first contacted RT using the online “contact us” form on their website. There was no response. I phoned RT and the lady did not seem to know that there was a “contact us” form on their website!

After a bit of correspondence (about how RT work) I finally had the following:-

The traceability programme which we established and that we robustly enforce was designed for a team of auditors whose only role is to carry out inspections and traceability challenges. The systems that are in place do not provide the sort of information or access that a consumer would need to carry out an accurate product trace.

So there we have it. The traceability is for the RT team, not for consumers. I then asked if the phrase “from farm to fork” was legal and was met with a resounding silence.
Now I am willing to take this forward, but would like the views of the members here before I go any further, as I don’t want to mess up things for those of you who are RT members.
Thoughts?
 

George14

New Member
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.
 

brigadoon

Member
Location
Galloway
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.

RT claim that they can trace meat back from farm to fork - a clain repeated several times through their website - they have been asked to do that - nobody has aked for access to records through the supply chain, all that they have asked is - which farm did this steak come from? The OP would have been very happy if hehad got a response along the lines of "Clartiehole Farm" Geordieland

The response from RT is indeed clear - they have been caught with thier knickers down.
 

caveman

Member
Location
East Sussex.
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.

Hi George.
Welcome.
So you joined the forum 11 months ago and your only two posts are the two above.
Who are you spying for?
 

llamedos

New Member
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.

Why would 'Joe Public' not want to test a claim made on the web site, why is it like getting blood form a stone trying to get a helpful reply from RT, perhaps this should be re worded George

Every stage of the Journey is checked, Our systems ensure that all food can be traced right back to the original British Farms for you by our auditors......

upload_2017-8-12_18-55-39.png


Had either of us received a helpful reply at the get go, then perhaps the matter would have been dropped, but if those within the farming community have to keep on asking loaded questions before we start to get anywhere, how is this going to look to 'Joe Public' .


As I have said from the start, I am happy to follow a beast through production, more than willing to be proved wrong, but at each and every turn, every question, both RT & Aldi, have provided no assurance that a piece of steak can indeed be traced, or my leg of lamb for that matter...
Speak to abattoir workers,& the waters become even more un clear.


Trust the Tractor? No, not yet.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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