AMS has begun approving poultry companies to the Certified Responsible Antibiotic Use (CRAU) Standard developed by School Food FOCUS (FOCUS) and The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew). FOCUS and Pew seek to minimize the use of veterinary antibiotics that are identical or closely related to drugs used in human medicine. Poultry producers in conformance with CRAU are prohibited from using antibiotics with analogues in human medicine routinely or without clear medical justification. Use of antibiotics with analogues in human medicine must be rare, well documented, and prescribed by a veterinarian. Antibiotics that do not have analogues in human medicine have no further restrictions in this standard, as their use at this time is believed to present minimal risk to public health.
The scope of the CRAU verification includes a comprehensive farm-to-package review of relevant processes and facilities that include hatcheries, feed mills, farms/barns and processing/packaging sites. The audit must document systems for proper identification and segregation of CRAU product from farm to package.
To meet the requirements of the CRAU standard, a poultry company must be audited through either the
USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) or the
USDA Quality System Assessment (QSA) Program, which are defined in the GVD 1001 and the GVD 1002 procedures, respectively. Either program ensures that the CRAU requirements are supported by a documented quality management system. To ensure conformance to the CRAU standard, audit reports will be submitted to School Food FOCUS.
The following approved companies have been found in conformance with the requirements of the CRAU and with all criteria of their approved quality management systems.
