| Hygiene |
The UK's Meat Industry is one
of the most heavily regulated and
tightly enforced of all industries.
Arguably, the standards of
hygiene required by legislation
are more rigorous than those
practiced in the NHS.
Indeed, health expert Professor Hugh Pennington
has slammed NHS hospitals as being dirtier than
slaughterhouses. His criticism follows a survey revealing more than half of all NHS patients thought their homes were cleaner than the wards. He said:
"If our hospitals were kept at the level of cleanliness that slaughterhouses currently observe, it would be a far better deal for the patients.
Ten per cent of people who go into hospital
contract an infection while there, and all of these infections are preventable with improved hygiene."
There now follows a breakdown of
the areas most pertinent
to meat hygiene, namely: Meat
Hygiene Regulations;
Approval And Licensing for Meat Plants And Premises;
Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Points (HACCP); Meat Hygiene Service (MHS).
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Meat Hygiene Regulations
Listed below are the key regulations applicable to an abattoir
and butcher's shop
such as ours.
| Fresh Red
Meat |
These Regulations give effect to the EC Directive covering public health and animal health problems affecting the production and marketing of fresh meat and large farmed game. They cover all red meat premises involved in the production of red meat intended to be sold for human consumption.
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| Minced
Meat And Meat Preparations |
These Regulations apply to the production of minced meat and meat preparations intended for human consumption. They take account of the different ways in which minced meat is prepared and consumed in different EC Member States,
and set separate standards for mince and meat preparations intended for the national market. Meat Preparations include beefburgers, chicken kiev, seasoned steaks,
and the traditional British
sausage.
|
| Meat
Products And Other
Products of Animal Origin |
These Regulations apply to meat products, meat-based prepared meals, meat products in hermetically sealed containers, and certain other products of animal origin intended for human consumption
- e.g. intestines (tripe, natural sausage
casings, etc). They prescribe the conditions which must be satisfied for the manufacture, storage, and distribution of meat products intended for sale for human consumption, and the first stage processing
(i.e. rendering or processing from raw materials) of other products of animal origin.
|
| Animal
By-Products |
These
Regulations require the immediate sterilisation and
staining - at a slaughterhouse
- of any carcass (excluding poultry) which is not intended for direct human consumption.
Any parts of a carcass
that are intended for
human consumption - but
found to be over 30 months
old at the time of
slaughter - are covered by
these Regulations also.
Furthermore, various provisions
are made for restricting the freezing, storage, and movement of animal by-products.
|
Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
Over
Thirty Months (OTM)
|
A
swathe of Regulations
which cover bovine (i.e.
cattle) feed control, age
(OTM), slaughtering,
by-product disposal, meat
preparation and sale,
import and export, and so
forth. Read
on...
|
| Clean
Livestock Policy |
The Clean Livestock Policy sets out the standards for acceptable and unacceptable levels of cleanliness for cattle and sheep being presented for slaughter.
Read
on...
|
| Inspection
Charges |
These Regulations provide for
Meat
Hygiene Service (MHS) charges that encompass any monitoring of the welfare of animals slaughtered for human consumption in
slaughterhouses.
|
It is worth mentioning that due to
the efforts of SAFe
(founded by John Chadwick), a
campaign to introduce a fairer
charging system for meat
inspection (known as Headage
Rate) has led to a
change in Inspection Charges
legislation.
|
Approval And Licensing
for Meat Plants And Premises
[top]
Licenses are required for all operating meat plants,
in particular slaughterhouses
(such as ours) and cutting plants, and
premises that sell raw meat - such
as our butcher's shop.
Licenses are granted - by the Meat
Hygiene Service (MHS) - subject to satisfactory hygiene conditions being in
place. These include, compliance with existing food hygiene
legislation (see above), the operation of documented food safety management controls in line with the principles of
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points
(HACCP), and enhanced staff hygiene training
procedures.
| Licensing
of Butcher's Shops in
England |
The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) (Butchers' Shops) Amendment Regulations 2000 came into force on 1st May 2000.
These Regulations introduced a statutory annual licensing scheme for retail butchers'
shops, and other retail food
outlets, who handle and
sell unwrapped raw meat together with ready-to-eat food from the same premises.
Read
on...
|
| Meat
Premises Licensing |
Licenses are required for all operating meat plants unless specifically exempted
from Regulations. It is a criminal offence to operate a premises
if it is not licensed. Read
on...
|
|
Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Points (HACCP) [top]
The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system
- usually pronounced 'hassup' - is
an 'internationally accepted'
system for food safety management. It is
supposedly a preventative approach to food safety based on the following
principles:
| 1. |
Identify any hazards that must be prevented,
eliminated or
reduced |
| 2. |
Identify the critical control points (CCPs) at the steps at which control is
essential |
| 3. |
Establish critical limits at CCPs |
| 4. |
Establish procedures to monitor the CCPs |
| 5. |
Establish corrective actions to be taken if a CCP is not under
control |
| 6. |
Establish procedures to verify whether the above procedures are working
effectively |
| 7. |
Establish documents and records to demonstrate the effective application of the above
measures |
| HACCP
in Meat Plants |
The Meat (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) Regulations 2002 require meat plant operators to introduce hygiene procedures based on HACCP principles, and to undertake microbiological
checks.
Read
on...
|
| Microbiological
Testing |
Microbiological testing is
a method that meat plant operators can use to check that their production procedures are effective, and that hazards are being controlled.
Read
on... |
According to John
Chadwick, however, HACCP
is an unnecessary and heavy administrative
burden on small meat businesses, and amounts to nothing more than a 'cheats
charter'. Read more on John's views by clicking
here.
Nonetheless, Noel Chadwick Ltd
does comply with hygiene
regulations regarding HACCP. And,
as part of our open-door
policy,
we have included (below) our HACCP
documentation for you to download
and read. Note: This
documentation is specific to our
meat premises only. Also, please read
our Terms
of Use before downloading.
If you have any experiences
or comments about HACCP,
please feel free to voice them
over at our Forum.
|
Meat Hygiene Service (MHS)
[top]
The Meat
Hygiene Service (MHS)
is
responsible for enforcing the
(above) regulations and
legislation applicable to licensed
meat.
The MHS provides the hygiene supervision and meat inspection services
- as demanded by legislation
- in licensed slaughterhouses
(such as ours) and cutting plants. Furthermore, the MHS has a statutory duty to provide these services on demand, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
| MHS
Workforce |
The MHS operational workforce consists of
approximately 2000 full-time, casual and contracted staff
deployed in ‘front-line’ hygiene inspection teams
throughout Britain's licensed meat premises.
Read
on...
|
| MHS
in Licensed Meat Premises
|
The
MHS enforces licensed meat
hygiene legislation by
providing a number of
supervision and inspection
services before, during,
and after slaughtering.
Read
on... |
|
If you would like more details
about meat hygiene, please feel free
to contact
us. We will be
happy to help.
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|
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"Our
standards of hygiene practice,
and the pride we take in our work, means
that we can serve you the
safest, best quality meat
available."
[John Chadwick,
Managing Director]
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