Red Tractor Fresh Produce delivers new free service to its members

Red Tractor Assurance Fresh Produce has been working with the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) to improve the benefits available to all Red Tractor Fresh Produce members. As a result, from todaya new free service will be available to all Red Tractor Fresh Produce growers offering exclusive access to the latest information on approved plant protection products.

The new service provides Red Tractor Fresh Produce members tailored access to LIAISON, Feras premier online approval pesticide database. The service, which is usually only accessible through paid subscription, includes all the latest information on approved pesticides straight from Defra.

Mark Tatchell, Chairman of the Red Tractor Assurance Fresh Produce Board said: This is a very significant benefit for our members. Up-to-date legislation on approved pesticides is essential for all growers and their businesses. As new approvals are granted and existing approvals revoked regularly, our previous system of publishing individual crop practices in annual appendices meant that information could effectively become outdated as soon as the appendices were printed. Now members will have all the information they need on best practice at their finger tips, all year round and at no added cost.

Dr Miles Thomas, Head of Knowledge Management at Fera said: Red Tractor Assurance Fresh Produce approached us, keen to bring added value to their scheme members. Feras LIAISON system includes all current, information on plant protection products (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides etc.) approved for use in the UK. Its been arranged so that searches will be filtered specifically for individual Red Tractor members registered crops. This means the added benefit of fast and accurate information direct as they need it.

This new service is available to all Red Tractor Fresh Produce members through logging into the Member Services section on the new Red Tractor Assurance website and following the LIAISON link. Login at http://assurance.redtractor.org.uk/rtassurance/services.eb and start benefiting from the new free service today. A user friendly manual is also available on the website for growers who may be unfamiliar with how to use the LIAISON system.

For more information please email enquiries@redtractor.org.uk or call Vivienne Twiselton 01932 589 800.

Red Tractor is the mark of quality and origin that is trusted and well recognised by shoppers, the food industry, opinion formers and regulators.

• An impressive 78,000 farmers and growers are now part of Red Tractor Assurance, all committed to maintaining high standards of food safety and hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection.

• Red Tractor Assurance ensures that safety and hygiene are maintained all the way from farms to pack, and so independent inspections are made on food processing companies and packers too.

• Red Tractor Assurance allows farmers to demonstrate the origin of their products. Seeing the Union Flag in the logo guarantees the product can be traced back to UK farms.

• The 2011 editions of the 50 crop protocols will shortly be published and distributed to scheme members. The new system means that authors have been able to refocus on ensuring that the content of the crop protocols reflects current best practice for each individual crop.

• The Red Tractor logo covers an extensive range of food products in the UK and appears on more than 10 billion worth of retail food and drink each year.