Optimal quality the highest priority
Process
The process from request to supply of the product is a dynamic one, managed by a staged approach. The crop supervisors play a key role in this; as supply and crop experts, they strive for the crop conditions required for achieving product specifications.
They make sure the product requested by the buyer can be supplied at the right quality and in the right quantity at the right time. Using proprietary expertise and measuring methods, specific characteristics are measured per product for precise harvest forecasts (time of harvest, harvest volume), physical and intrinsic product quality.
Quality
De Schakel is duly aware of the high demands today's consumers place on food safety and the quality of the products they consume. Attention to food safety and quality is therefore a permanent point of focus in the growers' association policy. De Schakel has a HACCP-certified care system for this in place. This system enables the organisation to structurally, efficiently and effectively monitor the quality of the products grown.
De Schakel also systematically checks the products grown for the presence of any excess concentrations of residue from crop protection substances and heavy metals. The organisation possesses an effective residue monitoring system for this purpose.
De Schakel also asks that its growers operate in line with the applicable quality and safety standards. Growers are therefore required to be VVC/VVAK-, EurepGAP (in the Netherlands and Germany) or Vegaplan (Belgium) -certified. Agreements around food safety and certification are set out in the individual grower contracts in place between De Schakel and affiliated growers. The implementation of and protocols for the quality policy are set out in the Internal Regulations of Cooperative Growers' Association De Schakel U.A.
