The roll out of a new list of post-mortem rejection conditions has begun in sheep and cattle abattoirs in England.
The rationalised rejection conditions, which result in all or part of a carcase being rejected for human consumption, are being introduced as the result of a project involving AHDB Beef and Lamb and the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
The implementation of the rationalised conditions is said to be the first milestone towards improving the efficiency and efficacy of the farm-to-fork information cycle, with the aim of maintaining the health and welfare of livestock, safeguarding UK consumers and protecting the UK’s reputation in relation to exports.
The changes follow industry consultation and successful trials in a number of abattoirs across the country.
One of the features that is being implemented as part of the project is the introduction of a standardised screen layout across sheep and cattle abattoirs to facilitate the accurate recording of data.
It is believed this will benefit FSA meat hygiene inspectors who work across several plants, as it will mean the same condition can be found in the same place on the screen, irrespective of which plant they are working in.
Peter Boyes, technical director of Dovecote Park, commented: “Dovecote Park welcomes the new post-mortem cattle conditions as they convey a much simpler and standardised set of disorders that is more useful to the modern farmer.
“Standardising the conditions across the country will mean that wherever cattle are slaughtered there will be a consistency in the information recorded by meat inspectors. This in turn will lead to clearer information to farmers to understand what treatment to give their herds in the future and also what actions have worked well.”
To ensure a smooth implementation of the project, the roll out is being staggered as follows:
- North west of England – already commenced the week beginning 23rd May
- North east of England – week commencing 6th June
- South east of England – week commencing 20th June
- South west of England – week commencing 4th July
- Wales – week commencing 18th July
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
