Look out for the British Turkey Quality Mark available in most supermarkets, when you are buying turkey meat. It's your guarantee that you are buying the best turkey meat on offer today.

The Quality Mark is backed by a far-reaching quality assurance scheme which highlights some of the highest standards in the world achieved by British turkey farmers.

In fact they are independently inspected against more than 200 individual quality criteria covering all aspects of rearing and production. Particular attention is paid to food safety, traceability (tracking back through the supply chain to source) and bird welfare.

The Assurance Scheme guarantees that British turkey products carrying the Quality Mark excel in areas of food safety, traceability and bird welfare.

Product Traceability

The British turkey industry consists mainly of integrated companies who manage all stages of production from the breeding of parent stockto the processing of finished turkey products.

This means that turkey products can be traced back from your home to individual farmers and breeding stock.

Welfare

In all aspects of bird welfare, the industry is committed to the highest standards of rearing, which are among the best in the world. These include:

• Implementing the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) recommendations on stocking density
• Adopting the FAWC recommendations on minimum light levels for rearing
• Applying minimum electrical stunning currents prior to slaughter
• Placing restrictions on beak trimming
• Reducing by half the legal requirement for the journey time from farm to processing plant

Food Safety

Food safety and quality assurance are critical factors across the food manufacturing industry. Our scheme highlights best practice in hygiene controls, health and safety, packaging, storage and transport to provide a greater assurance of safe food reaching your table.

In addition to the high standards demanded by the European Union rules, the industry has embraced the following UK-only requirements to maximise food safety:

• No meat and bone meal has been used in feed since 1996
• The industry has a voluntary ban on the use of poultry by-products in poultry feed
• Hygiene Assessment System (HAS) scores, which independently verify the performance of processing and cutting plants, are published monthly for public scrutiny
• Turkey meat residue testing programmes and their results are published quarterly
• Routine salmonella testing is conducted at all stages of production and the number of on-farm positives are published