By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While Johnsonville Sausage may be among the most recognizable pork products on the shelf, the company still deals with increased pressure from retailers and consumers to maintain a high standard of food safety and performance.

“The issues of yesterday have become the basic requirements of today’s standards including taste, consistency, quality, wholesome nutrients, safety and brand trust,” said company spokesman Dan Sutherland during the recent National Institute for Animal Agriculture annual meeting March 31-April 1 in Louisville, Ky.
“And we have to take that one step further, by focusing on animal welfare standards, the environment, traceability, audits, food safety and antibiotic use.

“We want to know that our customer (pork supplier) understands the consumer,” said Sutherland. “Consumers are asking us to be more transparent and we in turn are asking our customers to be more transparent on their farms. We can’t do it all, people. Some of the responsibility must be yours.”

He explained how the packing industry has adjusted to new standards of safety and performance, including new animal handling and welfare requirements.

“The bar has been raised by our customers, both domestic and international – try doing business in France, for instance,” he said. “Our business has adjusted dramatically to include new worker safety and environmental policies, which has always been important to us. Is it equally important to our supply base? We have to meet verification standards from a series of different parties.”

Sutherland told the group of animal agriculture producers and officials “it’s not enough just to tell the consumer, you have to show the consumer how your animals are raised.”

Being compared to women’s suffrage, animal welfare issues have exploded in interest amongst consumers, according to Sutherland. “Have we really communicated the issue?” he asked. “With the Oprah special running last fall and the Hallmark scandal in California, what can we do to show the good side of the industry?
“The Hallmark/Westland incident was the perfect storm for animal activist and really helped to propel their issues.”

As a result, Sutherland explained how national brands are now being attacked, such as Hormel, whose name and reputation were on the line as an Iowa hog farm came under the spotlight for poor animal handling and care tactics.

“Johnsonville is trying to take a proactive approach to ensuring outstanding production by partnering with NPPC (National Pork Producers Council) in the ‘We Care’ campaign to encourage best management practices at all times by our suppliers,” he said.
Additionally, Johnsonville has worked with NPPC to require PQA Plus and TQA certification from its producers. He questioned the success of this program, however, adding that “it’s a good start, but it doesn’t go far enough. There’s no follow-up and it’s viewed by grocers as inadequate.

“We have to include an element of accountability,” he said. “As a processor, we go through multiple plant audits each year for continued improvement. We can’t do it all, it’s time to push back to producers.”

Also, Sutherland explained how the company is trying to manage risk by implementing a needle program, drug withdrawal requirements and animal welfare standards.

“We spend tens of millions of dollars to detect needles in our pork,” he added. “We feel that responsibility needs to go back to the producers.”

Sutherland said Johnsonville, an innovator, was the first packer to mandate animal identification. “We’re moving forward with educational programs for our workers and intense audit programs, we’re doing what we need to do,” he said. “And if it ain’t broken, break it.

“We need to break paradigms because old isn’t always good. Let’s embrace change and opportunity and empower producers to do the same.”

In closing, Sutherland pushed back to the livestock industry, adding “we’re producing food, not livestock; the animals you’re putting out the door is the food you’re eating.

“Ask yourself as a producer what is right, is it really is that simple? And work together as an industry to hold up the responsibility you have as a caretaker of animals and a producer of food.”