Small Grower Standards

All food businesses have a responsibility to make sure that the food they produce is safe. Public procurement bodies need to be confident that the food they procure meets food safety and hygiene standards and legislation. This is  especially important when they working with high risk/ more vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly and hospital patients. They therefore require their suppliers to participate in recognised Quality Assurance Schemes, for example the British Retail Consortium and the Red Tractor assurance schemes.

These standards are drawn up with large, specialist food and farming businesses in mind, and it can be quite challenging for small, diverse, agroecological/ organic farmers and growers to meet these standards. To address the issue, the Farming Connect Horticulture Programme has developed the Small Grower Supplier Standards that are appropriate and practical for these producers on the one hand and meet all the necessary safety and hygiene requirements on the other.

Some of these standards overlap with other schemes such as Organic, LEAF and SALSA. The Standards Matrix shows where those commonalities lie, and how the accreditation process will be streamlined for growers to take account of this.  

The document below outlines the main certification schemes currently used by small growers, and we have created two podcasts to illustrate what is involved specifically in achieving the Small Growers Standards.

Should you wish to explore the Small Grower Supplier Standards further, please contact  Horticulture@lantra.co.uk who run Farming Connect and can offer you support.