How Red Tractor Assurance works

Send application and fee to your chosen Certification Body detailing all the relevant holdings/premises. Receipt will be acknowledged in 14 days and the assessment will be arranged.

The assessor will talk to you about your business as you walk together around the facilities, look at the livestock/crop(s) as applicable and check your paperwork. They will need to talk to your staff too about what they do. Any areas which do not meet the standards (non-conformances) will be highlighted to you throughout the visit. They are not allowed to advise on, or suggest, how you need to correct things. You will be left or sent a report which will contain details of any non-conformances, an indication of the evidence you will be expected to provide (e.g. invoices, photos, photocopies, letter from vet) and the timescales for action.

You must supply your Certification Body with evidence that you have corrected everything as explained in the non-conformance report. In some cases a re-visit may be required and this may incur a charge. Your application will lapse if you do not correct everything satisfactorily and in good time.

Once satisfactory evidence has been provided you will be entered as 'Assured' on the Scheme Member Checker database and you can then sell your product(s) as 'Assured'. You may receive an actual certificate in electronic format or printed but the status on the Scheme Member Checker database is definitive.

You will be invited to renew your membership annually, 12 months after the initial assessment and every 12 months thereafter. You will receive a renewal notice and a maximum of two reminder letters.

An assessor will make regular visits similar to your initial assessment to check you are continuing to conform to the Standards at all times. These assessments will be once per membership year with the exception of the RTA dairy and beef and lamb farm schemes which will be once every 18 months. You may also be subject to random spot check visits. If you do not conform to any Standards you must provide evidence, normally within 28 days, that you have rectified them as outlined at Steps 2 & 3 above. If you have a serious non-conformance against what we consider to be a 'Key' standard (marked K in the manual) your certificate can be suspended until you have shown you have put this right.

Your membership and certification can also be suspended if you have non put non-conformances right within the time stipulated. Suspension is only lifted once you have proved that you have corrected the non-conformances. In some cases a re-visit may be required. You must not sell products as 'Assured' whilst your certification is suspended.

If within 3 months of the suspension date you do not demonstrate that you have corrected the non-conformances then the Certification Body will withdraw the certification and you will no longer be a member of the Scheme. You can only regain certification by following the procedure for a new applicant and as long as no other sanctions or non-conformances remain.