foodwatch criticizes the QS certification mark for food

"Quality and safety" at a bargain price? - 40-page report for download

At the International Green Week in Berlin, foodwatch sharply criticized the QS certification mark, which the food industry organizes on its own. “Neither the quality nor the safety promises can be kept”, sums up Matthias Wolfschmidt when presenting the 40-page QA report from foodwatch. According to current research by foodwatch, a lack of BSE tests has also been found at slaughterhouses that are QS-certified.

Matthias Wolfschmidt developed the foodwatch study on QS

State authorities from Bremen, Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg confirmed foodwatch complaints at nine QS-tested slaughterhouses. The consumer organization demands immediate clarification from QS-GmbH as to whether the violations occurred before or after the QS certification. 

Although the QS system offers the possibility of traceability in food production, the claim to "quality and safety" is not redeemed. QS criteria rarely offer more than compliance with legal requirements. Criteria such as a continuous cold chain or the removal of risky material during slaughter are self-evident for consumers.

foodwatch presents the first comprehensive analysis of the QS system and comes to sobering conclusions for consumers: A pork schnitzel may be awarded the QS seal, even if the product comes from pigs from intensive farming on slatted concrete floors without an outlet and with genetically engineered soy was fed.

foodwatch calls on the food industry to end consumer deception: "QS is just a test seal for operational processes," says Wolfschmidt. However, retail groups such as the supermarket chain Wal-Mart aggressively advertised their products using the keywords “quality and safety”. At the same time, they enforced lower standards for imported goods. The most recent example is the feeding of animal fats, which experts consider to be a possible source of infectious BSE prions.

foodwatch chairman Thilo Bode at the presentation in Berlin

foodwatch is calling on the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to clear the seal jungle. Clear requirements for the award of product seals are urgently needed. In addition, similar to organic farming, the government must create a state seal of approval for conventional farming. Its requirements must be well above the applicable standards. In its current form, the QS seal undermines the agricultural turnaround propagated by the federal government. Instead of "class instead of mass", QS ennobles conventional mass-produced goods - and at a bargain price.

Here you can download the foodwatch study as a pdf file [alternatively.]

Source: Berlin [foodwatch]