Have your enterprise details and any existing membership correspondence beside you. Use the links from Bord Bia’s own page to reach the service you need, rather than a search result for a familiar-looking hostname.
Identify the question before signing in
Decide whether you need to join, prepare for an audit, answer a finding, update enterprise details or check certification status. When you contact support, give the scheme, your membership number and the task you need to complete.
For a first membership enquiry, describe what the business produces and any packing, handling or processing activity, and ask Bord Bia which scheme and scope apply. Keep a buyer’s request for certification with the enquiry so the required product or activity is clear.
For an existing member, use the membership reference in the correspondence you already hold. Check that the enterprise and address match before acting on an audit notice, and raise any mismatch with the scheme’s support contact.
Reach the appropriate resource
Use Farmer Assist at farm.bordbia.ie for audit preparation, the survey questionnaire and closing out audits. SHAS members can use hort.bordbia.ie through the horticulture scheme page. Follow the resource for your own enterprise rather than assuming all schemes use identical screens.
If access fails, note the service name, what you were trying to do and the error message, and send that to the published support contact. Never include your password. If someone helps you, agree who submits the information and who keeps the confirmation.
Keep scheme requirements tied to the right scope
The quality assurance standards cover food safety, traceability, welfare and environmental protection.
Work out which standard applies to the business before collecting evidence against individual headings. Download the current scheme documents from the relevant page and keep the title, edition and source with your preparation file. Do not rely on a neighbour’s audit list as the description of your own requirements.
Compare purchase records with M1.14
For SHAS purchases, retain supplier name and address, brand name, PCS, pack size, total quantity and receipt date. Invoices containing these details can suffice. Compare the actual documents field by field before making a duplicate purchase register.
File each invoice with its delivery and product details. If a description is unclear, ask the supplier to clarify it and keep the reply beside the invoice. For shared purchases, show how the invoice or merchant account relates to the material received on the audited site.
Reconcile the store inventory
Under SHAS M1.14, keep an up-to-date store inventory and another copy outside the store.
Use the stock-record guide to connect receipts, applications and outward movements. Keep the physical count separate from a calculated balance and look into any difference. Count obsolete or rejected material while it is still on site, note its status and planned return or disposal, and keep the paperwork when it leaves.
Read every pesticide-usage field
Include the SHAS pesticide-usage fields: Product Name, PCS Number, Location, Crop/Substrate, Area/Tonnage treated, application rate or amount, Date Applied, justification for use, pre-planting/harvest interval, first permissible harvest date and operator. Check your spray record against these 11 headings.
Match each field with the original application information. Keep product and crop names exact, the unit of the treated area visible, and the reason specific to the problem you saw. Where both appear in supporting records, keep product quantity apart from carrier-water volume.
The provision includes subcontractor applications. Agree the contractor handover before the work, so that the returned record can be tied to the location actually treated.
Keep official forms in their proper role
Choose the crop or amenity pesticide sheet and the relevant IPM material from the official record-keeping page. Compare the relevant form with the SHAS field list rather than assuming every available sheet has an identical purpose.
Keep your spray records in one place. Free to start.
Use the spray-sheet guide for the DAFM layout. Do not add an invented treatment just to make a table look complete. If a field is missing, ask the person who holds the original information, and keep the source and the correction. Keep a planned future instruction separate from the record of what was actually applied.
Connect harvest and the growing location
For each SHAS harvest record, identify the product, harvest date, batch or other identifier, growing location and quantity.
Keep those references connected to the crop-protection history. For repeated picking, be ready to explain how lot identification works in your operation and which structures or fields supplied a dispatch. When produce is mixed or split, record the source lots and the new lot number.
Use the pre-harvest guide to check the last application before harvest. A completed spray record and a harvest release are separate decisions, so the file should show the evidence linking them.
Include harvest hygiene in the crop audit
Include harvesting and on-farm transport in the SHAS growing-module risk assessment. Use those subjects to organise a walk-through with the harvesting supervisor. Check the procedure against the actual crop and handling arrangement.
Ask staff to show you how clean containers are supplied, how damaged tools are reported and how packaging is protected. Cover knives, secateurs, trailers, field rigs and reusable crates where they are used, and ask what happens when an item is lost, broken or found contaminated.
For washing or packing, find the procedure staff follow and the water information that goes with it. Ask who monitors the activity and how an interruption is handled. Keep laboratory results tied to their sample references, and label a result from another water source or an earlier crop batch as such.
Distinguish post-harvest treatment from field application
For SHAS post-harvest pesticide treatment, record product and PCS identity, date, crop batch, utilisation interval, rate, extent, quantity, justification and operator. Where that activity occurs, compare the relevant record with those headings rather than assuming a field diary captures the complete process.
Ask the responsible person what exactly was treated: harvested crop, a water volume or another stated extent. Keep the units exactly as recorded and name the batch affected. If you are unsure how to read the record, ask your adviser or the scheme contact before accepting it as complete.
Distinguish compliance criteria from information collected by survey
In SHAS, distinguish compliance criteria from information and additional performance criteria using the document legend. Read that legend when interpreting a paragraph or survey item. Do not silently convert every question in the standard into the same kind of mandatory record. Ask the scheme contact which requirement applies to the activity under review.
When you note an audit reference, copy the module and clause number with the exact subject. A growing-module instruction and a produce-handling instruction can cover related material at different stages, so first decide whether the question concerns a crop in the field, harvested material, packing or dispatch.
Examine equipment and protective-clothing evidence together
For the SHAS growing-module audit, prepare evidence of sprayer repair, calibration, independent inspection and protective equipment. Locate the evidence relevant to the actual machine and job.
Keep an annual calibration entry labelled as calibration; do not present it as the independent inspection just because both concern the same sprayer. Ask the operator which product and application method the protective-equipment choice was based on, and check how the equipment is stored, cleaned, maintained and replaced. Replace anything with unreadable identification or past its expiry date before it is used again.
For a contractor, ask which evidence the business holds and which comes with the job, and make sure staff can find it on request. Give the machine identity and the operation when you ask, so a certificate for another unit is not filed against the wrong application.
Next step
Select the correct scheme and match your crop records to the Irish spray-sheet guide.