What is Egg Quality Assurance?
Have you ever looked at a carton of eggs and seen this mark? You might have wondered what it means!
This symbol is the mark of Egg Quality AssuranceTM (EQA®) which certifies that your eggs were produced following the highest standard of on-farm food safety and animal care programs. When you see the EQA® logo, you can be sure that those eggs have met the requirements of Egg Farmers of Canada’s Start Clean-Stay Clean food safety and Animal Care programs. This includes mandated, on-farm processes for storage, cleanliness, air quality, and feed.
The program starts with our egg farmers but involves the entire egg industry including graders, processors and retailers to ensure all EQA® requirements are met at every step of the way – from the farm to your table!
The journey to EQA® starts with five key principles:
- Critical Requirements: the fundamental program criteria developed using the knowledge of industry stakeholders and science-based information. All farmers must follow these criteria to ensure that are always in compliance.
- Verification: our farmers are required to maintain records to ensure they are following these critical requirements
- Third-party Auditing: independent inspections and audits make sure each farm meets all standards.
- Continuous Improvement: program standards and requirements are reviewed and updated based on research results to ensure we are always continuously improving our programs.
- Farmer Commitment: participation of all regulated Canadian egg farmers is mandatory
Simply put, EQA® means consumers in Ontario and across Canada can count on having access to fresh, high-quality, local eggs from real Ontario egg farmers. Look for the EQA® symbol on egg cartons in your grocery store, restaurants and other egg products.
To learn more about EQA®, visit https://www.getcracking.ca/our-farmers/egg-quality-assurance.