Quality Control

UFAS

Oaklands Animal Health® are a fully UFAS (Universal Feed Assurance Scheme) accredited company. This accreditation gives quality assurance in that it clearly reflects the high standards of ingredient quality and production methods used in the formulation of our products.

UFAS accreditation means:

  1. Full traceability of ingredients
  2. Guaranteed manufacturing processes in place.
  3. No cross contamination of ingredients.
  4. No external contamination of ingredients.
  5. Guaranteed use of approved suppliers only.
  6. Guaranteed HACCP plan (globally recognized Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) – which ensures first class quality control and uniformity of production.

NOPS

BETA (British Equestrian Trade Association) working in combination with the globally recognised quality audit body UFAS (Universal Feed Assurance Scheme) have launched the BETA UFAS NOPS Code. The BETA NOPS Code is an assurance scheme to reduce the risk of accidental contamination by Naturally Occurring Prohibited Substances (NOPS). Those prohibited substances they are particularly looking for are as follows, with their common sources in brackets.

  • Caffeine – (coffee)
  • Theobromine – (chocolate)
  • Morphine – (opium poppy, Papaver somniferum)
  • Hyoscine – (nightshade, Datura)
  • Hordenine – (germinating barley)
  • Atropine – (nightshade – Atropa belladonna)
  • Nicotine – (tobacco)

These are NOPS that could conceivably get into the horse’s feed chain either directly from the feed being grown, such as hordenine on barley, but also from cross contamination.

The BETA Code ensures all materials used are risk assessed, all suppliers are carefully chosen and all manufacturing processes are carefully controlled to minimise the risk of NOPS contamination from farm to shop. Carrying the NOPS logo ensures everything possible has been done to minimise the risk from accidental contamination.