"Our task is to produce, collect, transform and market a noble raw material: MILK.

 

 

By making a commitment to this Quality Charter, the men and women at "Paysan Breton" want to show how they are working on behalf of one essential objective: to provide Consumers with quality products whose safety is inspected and traced all the way along the chain.

 

 

This is why the Quality Charter we implement at Paysan Breton takes account of the whole chain, from the farm to the point of sale. To show how important this objective is for us, all our managers have signed this charter".

 

Chief Executive of LAITA
P.BISSEY

 

 

1-Milk production on the farm

 

The Paysan Breton Quality Charter presents a very high level of requirements and includes in particular all the points in the breeding good practice charter (CBPE/CQVB) in its producer specifications.

All PAYSAN BRETON's producers have signed the PAYSAN BRETON Quality Charter. In time, the final objective is to achieve certification for breeding in the context of the NF V 01-005 "Agri Confidence" standard, a procedure to which the three co-operative groups have already made a commitment.

 

Monitoring breeders' commitments:

?  All milk producers who are committed to respecting the
   PAYSAN BRETON Quality Charter have a file which contains    both their own commitment and the elements necessary to monitor
   this commitment.

?  To ensure that this commitment is being respected, the
   co-operative group's technical teams meet each breeder on a one-to-one basis at least once a year to analyse their
   results with them. The
   PAYSAN BRETON Quality Charter is audited at least
   every three years and a written report is provided.

2-Milk collection

 

Our objective is to maintain the quality of the milk produced on our sites and to deliver it to factories under the best possible hygiene and safety conditions. To achieve this objective, we have introduced specially-adapted procedures and the collection service is quality-assured (ISO 9001 or NF V 01-005 "Agri Confidence").

3-Manufacture of Paysan Breton products

 

All Paysan Breton products are manufactured in nine factories located in Historic Brittany (departments: 22, 29, 35, 44, 56) with eight already certified according to the ISO 9001 international standard and one in the process of certification. This certification involves putting organisation procedures in place to manufacture quality products. An external independent body attests that the company is respecting its commitments. If it does not respect its commitments the company loses its certification.

 

Our factories pay the closest attention to the following subjects:

?  Respect for the environment
?  Risk control (HACCP)
?  Raw material control
?  Inspections and traceability
?  Hygiene
?  Paysan Breton's savoir faire

4-Logistics and transport

 

?  The products manufactured for Paysan Breton are stored in
   refrigerated depots which are specially adapted for our activities and which
   guarantee that the cold chain is respected.

 

?  Traceability is ensured right up to the delivered customer.

 

?  Products are handled in the Paysan Breton depot
   by specialised, trained personnel.

 

?  Paysan Breton ensures that its products are delivered by transporters who
   undertake to respect a set of specificatons (respect for the cold
   chain, clean trucks, etc.) and carries out
   checks to make sure this is the case.

5-Inspection of Paysan Breton products

 

?  In addition to checks in-house, Paysan Breton samples products
   directly in stores and has tastings conducted by
   panels of experts or consumers.

 

?  Samples are kept systematically for every product batch number
   until the optimum use by date
   (date indicated on the packaging).

 

?  The elements in the Paysan Breton Quality Charter are
  implemented to guarantee food safety for Paysan
   Breton's products. If a problem arises, Paysan Breton has introdiced a
   product withdrawal procedure.

6-Customer and consumer service

 

? Paysan Breton (LAITA)'s commercial activities are
   certified by QUALICERT (94 – CACHAN) according to the reference base
   "Marketing of dairy products" (RELAI).

The scope of this reference base is the retail of    dairy products (butter, emmental, soft cheeses and    cheese specialities) on a European and    international level to professionals. The essential characteristics    certified are available on request.

 

7- Inspected Milk chain guarantee

    Paysan Breton

 

All the elements described in the Paysan Breton Inspected Milk Chain are verified in-house. The whole of the system in place is checked by an independent body.

8-  Commitment of the different participants in the chain

 

On 14th June 2001 all the participants in the chain came together to sign the Paysan Breton Quality Charter. The following people were present:

?  representatives of milk producers

?  directors of the milk chains

?  factory directors

?  the director of Laïta