12 - Animal welfare and food safety at the slaughter plant

Abstract

Publisher Summary Animal welfare is becoming a greater and greater concern. This chapter focuses on the animal welfare and food safety at the slaughter plant. Maintaining high standards of animal welfare should be an integral part of a processing plant's overall meat quality and food safety program. In many plants, animal welfare audits are conducted by the quality assurance department that has responsibility for food safety, meat quality, and animal welfare. Many plants have also implemented their own internal animal welfare audits, usually conducted by the plant's Hazard Analysis at Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety department as part of their overall quality program. These auditing programs have resulted in great improvements in animal welfare. Careful handling of animals before they arrive at the plant and a reduction of electric prod use will help reduce bruises and greatly improve animal welfare. For both food safety and good animal welfare, cull breeding stock should be sent to slaughter before they have deteriorated to a debilitated state.