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Hebridean Ram

Total Traceability
© Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company Ltd

As you can see from other sections on this site, we make a lot of claims about the meat that we sell. How can we back that up?

That’s quite easy. Because we only deal with pure-bred, pedigree animals, every one is traceable through the pedigree records held by the relevant breed society. Thus we can trace every animal offered to us through spot checks.

We pay premium prices to the farmers who produce stock that meets our exacting standards and in turn, every carcase that is delivered to the Accredited Butcher, has a signed certificate to accompany it which the butcher should have on display (click the samples below for full-sized versions).

The certificate gives you, the shopper, all the reassurance you need.

• The first line confirms that it is British Beef, Lamb or Pork. That’s from an animal born, farmed and slaughtered in Great Britain – we’ll guarantee that.

• Secondly, there’s confirmation of the breed and reassurance that it is purebred.

• The next line tells you how the animal has been farmed. We do not accept stock from intensively farmed animals.

• The fourth line is the date that the animal in question was born and the next in which of the UK countries it was born.

• The next line is whereabouts in Britain it was farmed, the precise county. In many cases, this will also be the farm of birth, but not necessarily.

• Below is a signature guaranteeing the information and the date of issue of the certificate.

• In the box to the left is a unique reference code from which we can trace all details of the animal. With beef cattle, there is also the animal’s unique individual passport number. Then there is the county where the animal was slaughtered (the supermarkets are too squeamish to include this detail so they just put ‘SL in England’) and the abattoirs licence number. Then finally there is a statement, ‘Cut in these premises’ meaning that the carcase has been butchered in that butcher’s shop and not in an industrial cutting plant.

In order to be able to give you this level of reassurance for beef, we have to be licensed by Defra (the Department for Food & Rural Affairs) and be audited every year. Our Defra certificate and that of the auditors appears below. Click for a full sized version.

This is total reassurance for our customers that they are getting the genuine article – the very best quality meat available. o

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