The Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995

Regulations 4(2)(a), 8(1)(d)

SCHEDULE 6 HYGIENE REQUIREMENTS IN RELATION TO STAFF, PREMISES, EQUIPMENT AND IMPLEMENTS

Requirements applicable to all premises

1.  The occupier of any premises shall keep them, or cause them to be kept, in such a state of cleanliness and otherwise so conduct them as to prevent any risk of contamination of any fresh meat therein.

2.—(a) Staff handling exposed or wrapped fresh meat or working in rooms and areas in which such meat is handled, or transported shall wear clean and easily cleanable headgear, footwear and light-coloured working clothes or other protective clothing. Staff engaged in working on or handling fresh meat shall wear clean working clothes at the commencement of each working day and shall renew such clothing during the day as necessary and wash their hands several times during the working day and each time work is resumed. Persons who have been in contact with sick birds or sick rabbits or infected meat shall immediately afterwards carefully wash their hands and arms with hot water. No person shall smoke in work rooms and store rooms and in other areas and corridors through which fresh meat is transported.

(b) No animal shall be allowed to enter the establishments except, in the case of slaughterhouses, animals for slaughter. Rodents, insects and other vermin shall be systematically destroyed.

(c) Equipment and instruments used for handling live birds or rabbits and working on fresh meat shall be kept clean and in a good state of repair. They shall be carefully cleaned and disinfected several times during the working day, at the end of the day’s work and before being re-used when they have been soiled.

(d) Crates for delivering birds or rabbits shall be made of non-corrodible material, easy to clean and disinfect. They shall be cleaned and disinfected each time they are emptied.

3.  Rooms, instruments and working equipment shall not be used for purposes other than work on fresh meat or fresh meat within the meaning of regulation 2(1) of the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995(1) or wild game meat within the meaning of Council Directive 92/45/EEC or meat preparations or products unless they are cleaned and disinfected before re-use. However, this restriction shall not apply to transport equipment used in relation to meat which is packaged.

4.  Meat and containers thereof shall not come into direct contact with the floor.

5.  Potable water shall be used for all purposes; however, non-potable water may be used for steam production, fire fighting, cooling refrigeration equipment and removing waste feathers in the slaughterhouse provided that the pipes installed for this purpose preclude the use of such water for other purposes and present no danger of contamination of fresh meat.

6.  Sawdust or any other similar substance shall not be spread on the floor of the workrooms or fresh meat storage rooms.

7.  Detergents, disinfectants and similar substances shall be used in such a way that instruments, working equipment and fresh meat are not adversely affected. Their use shall be followed by thorough rinsing of such instruments and working equipment with potable water, as necessary, except where the disinfectant or similar substance is specially designed not to be rinsed after application.

9.  On being recruited, any person working on or handling unpackaged fresh meat shall be required to prove, by a medical certificate, that there is no objection on public health grounds to his engagement in such activities and every such medical certificate shall be produced on request to an official veterinary surgeon or to a veterinary officer.

(1)

S.I. 1995/361.