The first AIC Trade Assurance Schemes were developed in the mid nineties in response to consumer and legislative pressure to provide assurance and due diligence in the feed and food supply chain. The food scares including BSE, Salmonella, FMD etc, were some of the major driving forces behind this development and UKASTA (now AIC) developed :

• UFAS : Universal Feed Assurance Scheme
  covers the areas of compound feed mill and merchants that produce and sell animal feed materials and compound feeds
• TASCC : Trade Assurance Scheme for Combinable Crops
  covers the areas of combinable crops from the farm to the first processor - areas include storage, haulage, testing facility and merchanting The GAFTA/AIC Stores scheme also covers the area of animal feed material.
• FEMAS : Feed Materials Assurance Scheme
  covers the area of feed material production

More recently areas other than food and feed safety have been identified as being able to benefit from independent assurance:

• FIAS : Fertiliser Industry Assurance Scheme
  has been developed in order to help the industry ensure that large quantities of potentially dangerous chemicals are controlled.

All Schemes have been developed in consultation with the industry and various Governmental regulatory authorities.

The AIC Trade Assurance Schemes are managed by AIC and certification subcontracted to a certification body:

• TASCC, FEMAS, FIAS -PAI
• UFAS - EFSIS
• Sector Structure, Committees and Minutes

Certified companies are entered onto the relevant Trade Assurance Scheme Register  and updated on a weekly basis.