SQNZ ZOOTECHNICAL QUALITY

What is it?

The National Zootechnics Quality System (SQNZ) is a quality regime established pursuant to Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No. 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

All producers who voluntarily decide to embrace and respect one of the nationally approved specifications , published on the Masaf institutional website, can join this quality regime.

The specifications are currently approved and published for:

• Veal and/or Heifer with cereals
• Piedmontese Fassone breed
• Egg + cereal quality
• Podolian cattle grazing
• Sustainable aquaculture
• Veal in milk and cereals
• Raw cow's milk and derivatives
• Standard: Sustainable Beef Husbandry applicable to beef production

Key points

An SQNZ product can be defined as such if:

• it has distinctive characteristics and is obtained with particular production methods;

or if

• It is significantly superior to other commercial products in terms of its effects on public, plant and animal health, animal welfare or environmental protection.

The SQNZ quality regime includes the certification of agricultural companies, agricultural products and food products of livestock origin , involving all production phases in compliance with the requirements defined in the specifications, which must be respected by the operators involved throughout the supply chain, from breeders to slaughterhouses/processing/packaging plants, up to the finished product identified with the SQNZ references.

Advantages

Opportunity to promote your product by communicating compliance with more stringent quality standards than those imposed by mandatory European, national, and regional trade regulations.

The aim is to reward products that stand out for their superior characteristics , both in terms of product quality and the production and processing methods adopted, with particular attention to public health, plant and animal health, and environmental sustainability.

This quality regime also allows access to coupled premiums under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) , a tool that the European Union makes available to member states to support certain strategic productions, provided that breeders adopt recognized quality systems.