Quality Assurance

The QMS Cattle & Sheep Assurance Scheme is the longest established scheme of its kind in the world and celebrated a milestone 30th anniversary in 2020.

To be eligible for the Scottish Red Meat Industry’s premium brands and carry the Scotch Beef UKGI and Scotch Lamb UKGI logos, cattle and sheep must have been born, reared and slaughtered in Scotland and spent their entire life on QMS Scotch Assured holdings.

Animal welfare and wellbeing are of paramount importance in ensuring the highest product quality. The QMS Animal Welfare and Wellbeing Charter recognises the five freedoms of animal welfare and wellbeing and is a guiding principle for all QMS assurance schemes, which are supported and approved by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA), Scotland’s independent animal welfare charity. The Scottish SPCA also carry out some joint visits to QMS approved livestock farms along with Food Integrity Assurance (FIA) assessors.

Traceability of product is key and checker systems are available to farmers, auction markets and abattoirs, for determining the brand eligibility of Scotch assured livestock. The Scotch Potential Eligibility Cattle Checker (SPECC) allows users to check whether individual animals are potentially eligible for the Scotch Beef UKGI brand. The QMS website also provides a Farmers Directory which allows users to check which holdings are currently approved assured members of the QMS Cattle & Sheep Assurance Scheme.

The Cattle & Sheep Assurance Scheme is owned by QMS who have contracted Food Integrity Assurance, an independent inspection and certification company, to carry out the required farm assessments in order to certify and approve scheme members. Please note, FIA can only assess and certify the species of livestock which are presesnt on farm on the day of assessment.

To download the Cattle & Sheep Assurance Scheme standards or application form, please click on the links to the right. To obtain a Feed Hygiene Number please complete the required form at https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/business-and-industry/industry-specific-advice/farming-and-primary-production/reigstration-and-approval-of-feed-businesses/registration-and-approval-of-feed-businesses-form or alternatively it is available for download to the right of this page or if you are already registered and wish to find out your number please email feed@fss.scot.