The National Pork Board announced plans at World Pork Expo for a new common industry audit platform for pork producers, packers and processors. The program uses the existing Pork Quality Assurance® Plus program to establish criteria to standardize and measure animal welfare, food safety and other care practices required by customers. However, Pork Board CEO Chris Novak says it is not a mandated audit.

He says the goal is to provide consumers greater assurance of the care taken by farmers and pork processors to improve animal care and food safety.

The program will be implemented in mid to late July.