ProAction, a Dairy Farmers of Canada initiative, is a national mandatory certification program focused on several aspects of milk production. The goal of this program is to promote Canadian milk to consumers as one of the world’s best products that meets the highest standards. ProAction is also an opportunity for milk producers to improve and thus reap the benefits of their on-farm practices.
- The proAction initiative has six modules:
- Milk quality
- Food safety (Canadian Quality Milk)
- Animal care
- Livestock traceability
- Biosecurity
- Environment
ProAction uses the framework created for the Canadian Quality Milk (CQM) Program.
Each module was developed with technical committees or working groups made up of producers, scientists, veterinarians and industry specialists. The proAction initiative is founded on the principle of continuous improvement on farms across the nation.
ProAction is a mandatory Canadian certification program developed by milk producers, scientists, veterinarians and industry specialists. Various aspects of current dairy farm practices are included in the proAction Initiative. The goal is to show consumers that milk producers are extremely committed to providing high-quality, safe food in a responsible and sustainable way.
The program has six modules: milk quality, food safety, animal care, traceability, biosecurity, and environment.
To fully confirm that producers are in control of the risks, a qualified validator conducts an on-farm validation.
The validator uses a checklist to assess whether producers meet the program requirements. The validator makes observations, asks questions and writes a report. After the validation, the validator sends the report to Les Producteurs de lait du Québec, which makes a final decision on the registration of the producer concerned.
The validation cycle is an on-farm validation and a selfdeclaration the next year.
Les Producteurs de lait du Québec randomly chooses a specific percentage of producers who have completed a self-declaration to receive an on-farm validation the same year.