Atlantic Beef Products Inc.
Albany, PEI
A marriage of traditional and state-of-the-art.
Established in 2004, Atlantic Beef Products is a state-of-the-art, federally inspected beef processing facility that marries old world farming traditions with leading edge processing. We serve family beef and dairy farms in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and more recently in Quebec. We give consumers and food service operators in these regions, the option to source high quality beef from local sources and to support the local agriculture industry. We service customers across Canada with our brands of beef which include Atlantic Blue Dot Reserve (tm), Prince Edward Island Certified Beef (tm), True Beef (tm) and Island View Farms (tm).
We are also proud of our CRSB Certified Sustainable Beef Plant designation, one of the first in Canada.
At Atlantic Beef Products Inc., we believe that our CRSB Certified designation is an important affirmation that as a company, we are taking steps to minimize our impact on the environment and promoting sustainability in the beef industry. Beef raised using VBP+ production standards that are processed at our Certified Sustainable Beef Processing Operation now carry the CRSB Certified Beef Sustainability label and will give consumers confidence that our beef supply chain is operating to world-class sustainability practices.
~ Russ Mallard, President - Atlantic Beef Products Inc.
On Defining Sustainability
We incorporate efficiencies into our production process that reduce the impact on the environment, through reducing waste, while also improving the bottom line of the company. The future of the local beef industry depends on having a local beef processing plant to avoid expensive trucking fees to plants in other parts of Canada.
Our customers have confirmed our observations about how important it is to operate our business in an environmental manner. We have taken steps over the past few years to become more sustainable. The CRSB plant audit has helped us discover even more ways we can improve. It also helped to confirm that the actions we have taken in the past few years, contributed positively to our sustainability. We have passed the CRSB audit, and now provide certified assurances to demonstrate to our customers and the public that our efforts have been meaningful and successful.
Our Sustainable Practices
The CRSB plant audit covers 5 key areas: Natural Resources, People and the Community, Animal Health and Welfare, Food and Efficiency and Innovation. Through our certification audit, we were able to demonstrate that we are good stewards of all five attributes. Some of those practices and improvements include:
- Significant reduction in the amount of water we use for processing;
- Employment advancement opportunities for hourly workers;
- Consistent support of food banks;
- We endeavour to establish markets for as much of the beef carcass as possible to reduce waste and improve sustainability.
We are a Certified Humane Plant; we also have the highest rating of AA from BRC, a 3rd party annual plant inspection firm.
What you should know about us...
We recognize that a healthy local beef and dairy industry plays and important part in a sustainable agriculture industry in our region. Cattle grazing on the land helps to utilize geographic areas that would otherwise be unsuitable for crop production. Potatoes are an important crop here on the Island and in the Maritimes, and can only be grown optimally once every three years on a piece of land. That land is optimized by growing feed for livestock during the intervening two years. Cattle manure provides an effective, natural fertilizer, and contributes positively to soil heath by adding organic matter and microbes back into the soil which improves crop yields and improves soil moisture retention.
Atlantic Beef Products Inc. allows local cattle producers to avoid long and expensive truck rides to Ontario or the USA for their cattle and we supply local stores with locally-raised beef, reducing the need to transport beef into the Maritimes from western or central Canada or the USA.