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- Point in Time (29/04/2004)
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Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 laying down specific hygiene rules for on the hygiene of foodstuffs
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Version Superseded: 01/01/2006
Point in time view as at 29/04/2004.
There are currently no known outstanding effects for the Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, SECTION I: MEAT OF DOMESTIC UNGULATES.
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Food business operators transporting live animals to slaughterhouses must ensure compliance with the following requirements.
Food business operators must ensure that the construction, layout and equipment of slaughterhouses in which domestic ungulates are slaughtered meet the following requirements.
Slaughterhouses must have adequate and hygienic lairage facilities or, climate permitting, waiting pens that are easy to clean and disinfect. These facilities must be equipped for watering the animals and, if necessary, feeding them. The drainage of the wastewater must not compromise food safety.
They must also have separate lockable facilities or, climate permitting, pens for sick or suspect animals with separate draining and sited in such a way as to avoid contamination of other animals, unless the competent authority considers that such facilities are unnecessary.
The size of the lairage facilities must ensure that the welfare of the animals is respected. Their layout must facilitate ante-mortem inspections, including the identification of the animals or groups of animals.
have a sufficient number of rooms, appropriate to the operations being carried out;
have a separate room for the emptying and cleaning of stomachs and intestines, unless the competent authority authorises the separation in time of these operations within a specific slaughterhouse on a case-by-case basis;
ensure separation in space or time of the following operations:
stunning and bleeding;
in the case of porcine animals, scalding, depilation, scraping and singeing;
evisceration and further dressing;
handling clean guts and tripe;
preparation and cleaning of other offal, particularly the handling of skinned heads if it does not take place at the slaughter line;
packaging offal; and
dispatching meat;
have installations that prevent contact between the meat and the floors, walls and fixtures; and
have slaughter lines (where operated) that are designed to allow constant progress of the slaughter process and to avoid cross-contamination between the different parts of the slaughter line. Where more than one slaughter line is operated in the same premises, there must be adequate separation of the lines to prevent cross-contamination.
Food business operators must ensure that cutting plants handling meat of domestic ungulates:
are constructed so as to avoid contamination of meat, in particular by:
allowing constant progress of the operations; or
ensuring separation between the different production batches;
have rooms for the separate storage of packaged and exposed meat, unless stored at different times or in such a way that the packaging material and the manner of storage cannot be a source of contamination for the meat;
have cutting rooms equipped to ensure compliance with the requirements laid down in Chapter V;
have equipment for washing hands with taps designed to prevent the spread of contamination, for use by staff engaged in handling exposed meat; and
have facilities for disinfecting tools with hot water supplied at not less than 82oC, or an alternative system having an equivalent effect.
Food business operators operating slaughterhouses in which domestic ungulates are slaughtered must ensure compliance with the following requirements.
Meat from animals other than those referred to in subparagraphs (b) and (c) must not be used for human consumption if they die otherwise than by being slaughtered in the slaughterhouse.
Only live animals intended for slaughter may be brought into the slaughter premises, with the exception of:
animals that have undergone emergency slaughter outside the slaughterhouse in accordance with Chapter VI;
animals slaughtered at the place of production in accordance with Section III; and
wild game, in compliance with Section IV, Chapter II.
Meat from animals that undergo slaughter following an accident in a slaughterhouse may be used for human consumption if, on inspection, no serious lesions other than those due to the accident are found.
the trachea and oesophagus must remain intact during bleeding, except in the case of slaughter according to a religious custom;
during the removal of hides and fleece:
contact between the outside of the skin and the carcase must be prevented; and
operators and equipment coming into contact with the outer surface of hides and fleece must not touch the meat;
measures must be taken to prevent the spillage of digestive tract content during and after evisceration and to ensure mat evisceration is completed as soon as possible after stunning; and
removal of the udder must not result in contamination of the carcase with milk or colostrum.
remain identifiable as belonging to a given carcase; and
come into contact with no other carcase, offal or viscera, including those that have already undergone post-mortem inspection.
However, provided that it shows no pathological lesion, the penis may be discarded immediately.
the tonsils of bovine animals and solipeds must be removed hygienically;
parts unfit for human consumption must be removed as soon as possible from the clean sector of the establishment;
meat detained or declared unfit for human consumption and inedible by-products must not come into contact with meat declared fit for human consumption; and
viscera or parts of viscera remaining in the carcase, except for the kidneys, must be removed entirely and as soon as possible, unless the competent authority authorises otherwise.
stomachs must be scalded or cleaned;
intestines must be emptied and cleaned; and
heads and feet must be skinned or scalded and depilated.
Food business operators must ensure that cutting and boning of meat of domestic ungulates takes place in accordance with the following requirements.
meat intended for cutting is brought into the workrooms progressively as needed;
during cutting, boning, trimming, slicing, dicing, wrapping and packaging, the meat is maintained at not more than 3oC for offal and 7oC for other meat, by means of an ambient temperature of not more than 12oC or an alternative system having an equivalent effect; and
where the premises are approved for the cutting of meat of different animal species, precautions are taken to avoid cross-contamination, where necessary by separation of the operations on the different species in either space or time.
Food business operators must ensure that meat from domestic ungulates that have undergone emergency slaughter outside the slaughterhouse may be used for human consumption only if it complies with all the following requirements.
Food business operators must ensure that the storage and transport of meat of domestic ungulates takes place in accordance with the following requirements.
Unless other specific provisions provide otherwise, post-mortem inspection must be followed immediately by chilling in the slaughterhouse to ensure a temperature throughout the meat of not more than 3oC for offal and 7oC for other meat along a chilling curve that ensures a continuous decrease of the temperature. However, meat may be cut and boned during chilling in accordance with Chapter V, point 4.
During the chilling operations, there must be adequate ventilation to prevent condensation on the surface of the meat.
such transport takes place in accordance with the requirements that the competent authority specifies in respect of transport from one given establishment to another; and
the meat leaves the slaughterhouse, or a cutting room on the same site as the slaughter premises, immediately and transport takes no more than two hours.
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