8 Better Pork February 2017 • Raised without the use of added hormones : An animal cannot have received hormones in any way, including through the animal’s mother. • No animal by-product : Feed must be free of “ingredients or components of animal origin.” • Raised without growth promo- tants : Growth promotants cannot be given to an animal from birth to harvest. • Vegetable grain fed/grain fed : This claim means that animals can only be fed a diet of grain and that no ingredients have an animal origin. • Organic : Animals must follow the organic-farming requirement and be “certified by an agency accredited by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA),” according to the True Foods website. • Raised with a conscience : This claim generally means that animals were “raised in humane and low-stress environments.” • Contains nutritionally enriched DHA omega-3 : This label pertains to meat enriched with DHA (the omega-3 fatty acid) through the use of DHA-rich animal feed. For this label to have meaning, fattier cross-breed pigs are used since DHA is stored in the intramuscular fat. At Willowgrove Hill farms in Mitchell, Ont., where this DHA-en- riched pork is produced, they use a cross between the Topigs 20 female and the Topigs Tempo terminal sire. Overall, these label claims are an Growth of a governance company True Foods is a Cambridge, Ont.- based governance company which is a testament to the growth of label claims and specialty pork produc- tion in the province. According to Heather Ferguson, value chain manager at True Foods, the company’s job is to ensure “that whatever label claims are stated on the package is what’s in the package. “We make sure it’s governed from farm to shelf.” True Foods works “at the farm level, the auditor level, (with) different paperwork within the packing plant, (with the) document trail to CFIA, etc.” True Foods is part of the Grand Valley Fortifiers group of companies and has been operating for “two years as an actual company,” though Ferguson notes that the governance system itself existed previously under Grand Valley Fortifiers. True Foods works with producers such as Paul and Rosie Hill of Willowgrove Hill farms in Mitchell, Ont., who produce DHA-enriched pork and John Top of Salford, Ont., an organic pork farmer. Farmers like the Hills and the Tops “come to me,” says Ferguson, “with a set of ideals that they want met … I go through those ideals … to make sure that all those are attainable or reasonable.” Ferguson notes that “farmers want to be on value chains … because either they agree with whatever the claims are … or they want to get a premium, so all the value chains basically have a premi- um associated with them.” For consumers, True Foods provides transparency. “We are completely transparent … if some- one wants to ask a question, we will give them the details.” True Foods works with Loblaws supermarkets, helping the company with their PC © Free From™ label claims. This line of products features meat raised without the use of antibiotics and hormones. PC © Free From™ includes chicken, turkey, pork, beef and even bison, accord- ing to the President’s Choice prod- uct website. One of the next steps for True Foods is to expand. “We are current- ly working on trying to expand value chains out west,” Ferguson noted in the interview. It’s only two years old as a company, but True Foods is already destined for Prairie expansion. BP LABEL CLAIMS