An EU-approved farm is a livestock enterprise that produces in accordance with European Union (EU) standards and has been certified by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as fully meeting hygiene, animal health, and welfare conditions.
This designation is granted specifically to dairy cattle enterprises producing raw milk. For a farm to receive this approval, it must meet the following key requirements:
- Freedom from Disease: Animals on the farm must be completely free of zoonotic diseases (diseases transmissible from animals to humans) such as tuberculosis and brucellosis.
- High Hygiene Standards: All equipment, from milking units to the tanks where milk is stored, must be maintained to medical-grade cleanliness, and milk must be rapidly cooled to prevent bacterial growth.
- Low Bacteria and Somatic Cell Counts: The bacteria count, which indicates the quality of the milk produced, and the somatic cell count, which indicates the animal’s udder health, must remain below the legal limits set by the EU.
- Animal Welfare and Traceability: Animals must have comfortable living conditions and quality feed and water, and records must be kept regularly for every animal entering or leaving the farm.
Why Does It Matter?
For dairy and dairy product manufacturers in Turkey to be able to export to European Union countries, it is a legal requirement that the raw material (raw milk) be sourced from an EU-approved farm. Consequently, these farms are the most critical source of raw material, particularly for manufacturers exporting value-added products such as milk powder, whey powder, cheese, and butter.
At ATEŞOĞLU, the vast majority of the milk we collect from the Thrace region is sourced from EU-approved farms. All of the milk collected for the milk powder produced at our milk powder plant is sourced entirely from EU-approved farms.
