Antibiotics Policy of the Australian Chicken Meat Federation

Bartter Enterprises and all of its farmers, subscribe to the antibiotics policy of the Australian Chicken Meat Federation. Key points from this policy are outlined below, with the full policy available for viewing at www.chicken.org.au/antibiotics.

The Australian chicken meat industry’s main goal is to produce healthy food.

The industry has management practices in place that aim to minimise the development of antibiotic resistance in flocks and humans, and reduce exposure to antibiotic residues.

The use of antibiotics in meat chickens is limited to two important functions. First, antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections in unwell birds. Second, they are also used to prevent well birds from becoming infected with bacteria or disease in the first instance.

ACMF Industry Code

• Only antibiotics approved by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority for use in meat chickens are to be used.
• Good veterinary practice, withholding periods, designed to ensure that there is no residue left in the meat at the time of slaughter, and all other conditions stipulated by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority must be observed at all times.
• Antibiotics are not to be used to promote or enhance the bird's growth.
• Where unavoidable, antibiotics used in human medicine may be used, but only for targeted therapeutic treatment.

Avian Influenza and the Australian Chicken Meat Industry

Avian Influenza (“bird flu”) is an infectious disease of birds which has been found in some parts of Asia and Europe, attracting widespread media attention. Bartter Enterprises, along with The Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF) and Australia’s other major chicken meat producers, have worked with the Australian government for some time on preparations for avian flu and planning for how we would respond if avian flu were to enter Australia. At present:

• As Australian chickens are free from avian flu there is no risk of catching it from birds. Past outbreaks of various strains of avian flu in Australia have been successfully eradicated from poultry without any impact on consumers, industry workers or food supply.
• The Australian government is well prepared for an outbreak of avian flu in either birds or humans, with well-developed response plans in place.
• Our biosecurity arrangements will be key to keeping our birds healthy and isolated from other birds, both domesticated and wild. These are backed by the Australian government’s excellent record on quarantine and stringent disease control measures.

What is the Australian chicken meat industry doing about the threat of avian flu?
The chicken meat industry is well placed to deal with any emergency disease outbreak, including avian flu. The industry is committed to undertake whatever precautionary measures are needed to prevent outbreaks.

A well thought-through system is in place, which has proven its worth in quickly bringing previous outbreaks of Newcastle disease and various strains of avian flu under control and eradicating them. Measures include:

• Robust biosecurity systems on all chicken farms and associated operations.
• Helping fund, develop and maintain a national emergency animal disease response capability, including training industry people for their part in any response.
• A formal agreement between the Australian Government, the States and Territories and the chicken meat industry about strategies, responsibilities and cost sharing in case of an emergency disease response.

You can read more on Australia's preparedness by visiting:

The Australian Chicken Meat Federation

National Pests and Disease Outbreaks

Halal Accreditation

Bartter Enterprises supplies whole and portioned chicken and turkey products to major retailers under their private label brand and under our Steggles brand. We do not have Halal accreditation on any of our turkey products. We do have Halal accreditation on some of our chicken products, however we can not guarantee that your local store ranges Steggles Halal products as:

• Both our accredited and non-accredited processing sites supply major retailers under their private label brand.
• Other competitors also supply major retailers under their private label brand.

We can only guarantee that you are purchasing a Steggles Halal product if you purchase directly from one of our accredited processing sites through their direct outlet shop that is open to the public. See below for locations:

NSW: Hawthorn St Beresfield
Ph: 02 4924 4480

NSW: McWilliams Rd Hanwood
Ph: 02 6961 9789

VIC: 41-45 Leather St Geelong
Ph: 03 5227 6666

Quality

Bartter Enterprises is committed to developing and maintaining our business so that the Quality of our products and service consistently meets or exceeds the expectations of our customers.

Bartter Enterprises will pursue this policy through:

• Fostering an environment where the Quality is an integral part of the process and continuous improvement goal.
• Building long term relationships with our customers and suppliers; understanding, communicating and servicing their requirements and expectations.
• The development, implementation and maintenance of Quality Systems to identify the risks and implement corrective actions to continuously improve performance and quality.
• The use of objective measurement and optimising available resources to improve performance and quality.
• As a minimum requirement, comply with all relevant state and national legislation and any industry based regulations.
• Continuing to improve our knowledge, processes and technology.
• The development of the knowledge and skills of our employees to meet the demands of the workplace.

The keys to our success are "QUALITY, INNOVATION AND SERVICE."

The Bartter Culture and Employee Wellbeing

• Bartter Enterprises aims to be an employer of choice. Recognising the importance of our team to our business success, we support and empower our employees.
• We promote a performance based culture, nurturing our own and growing our own leaders, backed by a strong emphasis on development and extensive training opportunities. We recognise that our employees must be confident that we are committed to their success in order to generate their commitment to our business.

Background
As a vertically integrated food producer, Bartter Enterprises offers a wide range of employment opportunities from farming to an FMCG environment.

The Bartter Enterprises workforce has high cultural and gender diversity. We have been commended by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workforce Agency for employing women in a range of non-traditional roles.

Bartter has a strong emphasis on leadership development, offering a wide range of internal courses, as well as training opportunities that lead to recognised vocational qualifications in a number of areas, not only developing staff to meet our business needs, but giving them qualifications that may create further career opportunities. We also give recent university graduates the opportunity to explore a career in Bartter Enterprises through our Graduate Development Program.

Despite being a large organisation, Bartter Enterprises aims for a family culture and undertakes an annual cultural survey to confirm and direct our progress against goals. Recognising that employees have many priorities in their lives, Bartter Enterprises aims to both model and support work-life balance. We also offer the Employee Assistance Program, which offers employees and their immediate families free, confidential access to counselling services, either on a self referral basis, or referred by a colleague or manager.

Safety

The Bartter Safety Management System brings together legal requirements, accepted practices and organisational experience and knowledge to reduce and eliminate injury while meeting or exceeding all regulatory requirements. The System details the Bartter approach to areas such as emergency management, risk reduction and management, accountability and responsibility, education and training, policies and procedures, safety auditing and performance measurement.

We are committed to training employees at all sites at induction and on an ongoing basis, to ensure they understand the role they play in safety, and to providing appropriate resourcing and structure to deliver effective education and training. Employees at all levels are accountable for occupational health and safety performance, with OH&S responsibilities in all position descriptions and individual performance plans, supported by regular review and appropriate corrective action.

Bartter Enterprises uses risk management and assessment principles to determine the priority and key areas of focus. We continually and routinely measure our OH&S performance and communicate the results to all employees. We also have a number of qualified auditors on staff armed with a comprehensive set of audit criteria to measure our occupational health and safety performance.

The Bartter Safety Management System also outlines a rigorous program of education, awareness-building and consultation with our employees, business partners, visitors and the wider community.

Animal Welfare Policy

Bartter Enterprises takes a humane approach to its animals, seeking to maintain the highest standards of animal welfare in every stage of production. Contrary to popular belief, our chickens are not raised in cages – they are raised in custom built barns where they are free to roam and have easy access to food and water.
At Bartter Enterprises, the welfare of poultry has always been a key driver of the business. We recognise that animal welfare and economic performance are inextricably linked – maintaining strong, healthy bird flocks is the key to our overall business performance.
We ensure our staff understand their responsibility to the animals and that they apply the procedures and techniques needed to ensure the animals they care for are healthy and reared with respect. Any employee causing unnecessary pain or suffering to flocks is subject to immediate disciplinary action.

Background

Maintaining healthy animals is both ethical and financially wise, and is key to Bartter Enterprises’ success. We will always meet or exceed legislative requirements for the treatment of animals.
We continually aim to minimise the stress on animals in the way we handle them, from hatching to processing . We continue to investigate new technologies to boost automation and reduce the stress on animals.
Our animal welfare focus is supported by Poultry Husbandry Officers in every region. These specialists, are trained in poultry husbandry and can initiate corrective action where it is needed. Sick flocks are identified quickly and treated by our regional veterinarians.
The national standards we have set for our growers and contract growers cover areas which impact animal care such as water, ventilation, feeder access, shed temperature, inspections, bird health practices and general management. All farms are visited at least twice a week by an external inspector to confirm that standards are consistently met.
Our policy is to keep our stock rate well below the standard stock rates set by the Primary Industries Standing Committee’s Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals.
Our practices include:
• Using a very hardy breed of bird with strong legs and feet.
• Regular training and random audits for all people involved with animals to ensure they meet the same high standards.
• Educating and training staff to ensure that they understand their responsibility to the animals, and ensure the animals in their care are healthy and raised humanely.

Bartter GE-Free Policy

Bartter chickens are not genetically modified.

It is our policy to source non-GE ingredients for our poultry products.

We continue to make inroads in sourcing non-GE ingredients for our poultry feed. We restate our commitment to use our best endeavours to source non-GE feed ingredients and regularly review the sources of our feed in a bid to be as GE-free as is reasonably possible.

All non-GE ingredients must be available in commercial quantities, at a sustainable competitive cost, meet Australian trade standards and meet Bartters strict quality criteria. We have been able to achieve over 90% GE-free content in our current soy meal imports.

Click here to read the article 'Genetically modified feed does not affect meat" by meatnews.com