Milk production holdings are required by Regulation (EC) 854/2004 to undergo official controls to verify that hygiene requirements are being complied with. Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 on official feed and food controls recognises the use of relevant private quality assurance programmes for the risk prioritisation of official controls. The Food Standards Agency is currently undertaking a project, in co-operation with stakeholders, to assess the feasibility and extent to which results of farm assurance audits could be taken into account when deciding the frequency of official controls on dairy farms in England and Wales.