[ S.L.36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE REGULATIONS 1st July, 1995; 1st July,
- LEGAL NOTICE 93 of
- The title of these Regulations is Poultry Slaughterhouse Regulations. Title.
- In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires - Interpretation. "assistant staff" means trained persons officially designated by the Director; "approved slaughterhouse" means a slaughterhouse which complies with these Regulations and which has been inspected and approved by the Director; "licensee" means a person who is licensed in terms of regulation 3 of these Regulations to keep a poultry slaughterhouse; "Director" means the Director responsible for veterinary services; "offal" means fresh meat other than that of carcass as herein defined; "viscera" means offal from thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities, including trachea, oesophagus and crop; "drinking water" means water which is of such quality as to be fit for human consumption; "carcass" means the whole body of a fowl after bleeding, plucking and evisceration; however the removal of kidneys, legs at the tarsus or of the head shall be optional; "fresh poultry meat" means all parts of the animal which are fit for human consumption and which have not undergone any preserving process other than chilling or freezing; "poultry" means fowl, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea fowls, domestic and racing pigeons, quails, pheasants and partridges; "ante-mortem health inspection" means the inspection of live poultry by an official veterinarian within one hour prior to slaughter; "post-mortem health inspection" means the inspection of slaughtered poultry in the slaughterhouse immediately after slaughter in accordance with current regulations; "official veterinarian" means the veterinarian appointed by the Director. 1 2 [ S.L.36.38 Licence to keep a poultry slaughterhouse. POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE 3.
(1)No person shall keep a poultry slaughterhouse whether as owner, part owner or helper unless he holds a licence issued to him by the Director.
(2)No premises shall be used as a poultry slaughterhouse unless such premises are licensed by the Director to be used as such.
(3)The Director may only grant a licence for the keeping of a poultry slaughterhouse after considering an application therefor, and after he has ascertained that all the requirements listed in these Regulations and any further requirements he may have requested the applicant to perform, have been satisfied.
(4)The licensee shall be responsible for the running of the poultry slaughterhouse according to these Regulations and the Director may at any time revoke a licence if it is found lacking in any of the conditions mentioned in the licence, or if in the opinion of the Director there is a risk of spread of disease.
(5)Licences shall be valid for one calendar year and may be renewed from year to year after inspection by an official veterinarian.
(6)The official veterinarian, or any health inspector appointed by the Director, shall have the power of entry to inspect the poultry slaughterhouse whenever the Director deems it necessary.
(7)No extensions or alterations in any poultry slaughterhouse may be carried out unless previously authorised by the Director.
(8)The Director shall keep a poultry slaughterhouse register in which there shall be kept the following information: (
- i)veterinary approval number; (
- ii)name, address and telephone number of licensee; (iii) name, address and telephone number of the manager; (
- iv)address and telephone number of the poultry slaughterhouse; (
- v)site-plan, elevation plan, building layout plan and equipment layout plan of the poultry slaughterhouse.
(9)The licensee shall be responsible for any premises used in the poultry slaughterhouse and such premises shall be either constructed or removed as specified in these Regulations. Site of slaughterhouse. 4. The poultry slaughterhouse shall be at least two hundred metres away from inhabited areas, livestock farms and any industrial or other structures that may emit fumes or other materials that may contaminate poultry meat. Any existing poultry slaughterhouses that do not comply with this condition shall be allowed to operate; however if such a slaughterhouse ceases to operate for a continuous period of six months or more its licence shall not be renewed. Areas within slaughterhouse. 5.
(1)A poultry slaughterhouse shall be surrounded by a security fence or wall and gates to control traffic. The area within POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE [ S.L.36.38 the boundary wall shall be kept free from rodents and other animals.
(2)The poultry slaughterhouse shall be divided into a dirty area and a clean area.
(3)Transport and unloading of live poultry, collection and elimination of any waste products shall be carried out in the dirty area.
(4)All slaughtering procedures, storing, loading and transport of poultry meat shall be carried out in the clean area.
(5)No vehicles shall be allowed into the clean area unless previously cleaned and disinfected. 6. Poultry slaughterhouses must have: (
- a)a room or covered space which is sufficiently large and easy to cleanse and disinfect, for the ante-mortem inspection of poultry; (
- b)a special room which is easy to cleanse and disinfect, exclusively for poultry suffering from, or suspected to be suffering from, disease; (
- c)a slaughter room large enough for stunning and bleeding on the one hand, and plucking and any scalding on the other, to be carried out in separate places: Provided that any communication between the slaughter room and the room referred to in paragraph (
- a)above, other than a narrow opening through which only slaughtered poultry may pass, must have an automatically closing door; (
- d)an evisceration and preparation room which is large enough for evisceration to be carried out in a place sufficiently far away from the other work stations, or separated from them by a partition, so as to prevent contamination. Any communication between the evisceration and preparation room and the slaughter room, other than the narrow opening through which only slaughtered poultry may pass, must have an automatically closing door; (
- e)a dispatching room, if necessary; (
- f)one room or more sufficiently large fur chilling and/or refrigeration; (
- g)cold stores. Where cold stores are situated outside the slaughterhouse they must be licensed and shall be supervised by an official veterinarian. The Director shall be responsible for approving these stores and for withdrawing the approval. The cold stores shall be equipped with a thermograph sealed by the Director or officials delegated by him. The premises shall be subject to inspection at any time without notice by the Superintendent of Public Health or by an authorised officer on his behalf; Building requirements. 3 4 [ S.L.36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE (
- h)a room or space for collecting of feathers unless these are treated as waste; (
- i)lockable premises, situated separately from the other rooms in the processing area, which are temperature controlled and reserved for the separate storage of poultry meat which has been temporarily detained and of unhealthy meat declared unfit for human consumption and waste, where such meat and waste is not removed each day from the slaughterhouse; (
- j)a room which is temperature controlled and situated separately from the other rooms in the processing area, exclusively for the technical treatment or destruction of poultry meat declared unfit for human consumption, meat which is excluded from use for human consumption and waste and by-products from slaughter, intended for industrial purposes, if such technical treatment or destruction is carried out on the premises; (
- k)changing rooms, wash basins, showers and flush lavatories; the latter shall not open directly onto the work rooms; the wash basins shall be near the lavatories and shall have hot and cold running water, materials for cleansing and disinfecting the hands, and disposable hand towels; (
- l)a facility or arrangement to be approved by the Director, for the disposal of dung unless dung is immediately and hygienically removed; (
- m)a place and adequate facilities for cleansing and disinfecting of cages and vehicles; (
- n)an adequately equipped, lockable room for the exclusive use of the veterinary services; (
- o)in the work rooms, adequate equipment for the cleansing and disinfecting of hands and tools; such equipment must be as near as possible to the work stations and taps must not be hand operable; these facilities must have hot and cold running water, cleaning and disinfecting products and disposable hand towels; for cleansing instruments the temperature of the water must be of not less than 82 degrees Celsius; (
- p)facilities enabling the veterinary inspections provided for in these Regulations to be carried out efficiently at any time; (
- q)an adequate surrounding wall or other means of enclosure; (
- r)without prejudice to paragraphs (a), (b), (
- c)and (
- d)above, adequate separation of the clean area from the contaminated parts of the building; (
- s)in the rooms mentioned in paragraphs (
- a)to (
- i)above: - waterproof flooring, which is easy to cleanse POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE - (
- t)[ S.L.36.38 and disinfect, and so constructed that water can drain away easily; smooth walls with light coloured washable coating or paint at a height of at least two metres, with rounded edges and corners; adequate natural or artificial lighting which does not distort colours in the rooms set aside for live or slaughtered poultry; (
- u)an adequate supply of hot and cold drinking water under pressure and a water disposal system which meets hygienic requirements; (
- v)proper equipment for protection against pests such as insects and rodents; (
- w)instruments and any equipment that comes into contract with poultry during processing and storage which are made of non-corrodible material and are easy to cleanse and disinfect; (
- x)special air-tight and water-tight non-corrodible containers which cannot be forced open, for collecting meat which has been declared unfit for human consumption. 7. Absolute cleanliness shall be required of staff, premises, equipment and instruments, as follows: (
- a)staff must in particular wear clean working clothes and headgear which are of a light colour and easily washable. Staff who slaughter animals and work on and handle meat shall wash and disinfect their hands several times during each working day and each time they resume work. Persons who have been in contact with sick animals or infected meat must immediately afterwards carefully wash their hands and arms in hot water and then disinfect them. Smoking shall be forbidden in work rooms and storerooms; (
- b)no dogs, cats or animals other than the poultry intended for slaughter may enter slaughterhouses. Rodents, insects and vermin shall be systematically destroyed; (
- c)the rooms mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (
- d)and (
- e)of regulation 6 must be cleansed and disinfected as necessary and at all events at the end of the day’s work; (
- d)cages for delivering poultry must be made of noncorrodible material, be easy to clean and disinfect and have waterproof floors. They must be cleaned and disinfected each time they are emptied; (
- e)equipment and instruments used for slaughtering, working on and the storing of meat must be kept clean and in a good state of repair. They must be carefully cleaned and disinfected several times during each Cleanliness. 5 6 [ S.L.36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE working day, at the end of the day’s work and before being used again if they have been contaminated; (
- f)Further requirements. containers for unhealthy meat unfit for human consumption and for offal shall be emptied after use and cleansed and disinfected each time they are emptied. 8. The following requirements shall be further observed by the licensee: (
- a)Premises, instruments, working equipment and plant used for slaughtering work and storing meat must be used solely for these purposes. (
- b)Poultry meat and containers thereof must not come into direct contact with the ground. (
- c)Feathers must be taken away immediately after plucking. (
- d)The use of disinfectants, detergents and pesticides must not affect the fitness of the meat for consumption. (
- e)Persons who may contaminate meat shall be prohibited from slaughtering or handling it, in particular if such persons are: - - (
- f)suffering from or suspected of suffering from typhoid fever, paratyphoid A and B, salmonellosis, dysentery, hepatitis, gastroenteritis, scarlet fever or carriers of these diseases; suffering or suspected of suffering from a contagious or infectious skin disease; exercising at the same time an activity which might cause microbes to be transmitted to meat; wearing a bandage on the hands, other than a water-proof dressing protecting a non-infected wound. A medical certificate shall be required from every person working on poultry meat, attesting that there is no impediment to such employment; the certificate must be renewed annually and whenever requested by the official veterinarian; it shall always be available to the latter. The licensee shall ensure that all employees in his establishment shall be educated on the importance of personal hygiene and basic food safety principles. The licensee shall also be responsible for maintaining amongst his employees an awareness of any possible medical condition that may develop which might affect their employment. (
- g)Poultry for slaughter must undergo ante-mortem inspection within twenty-four hours of arrival at the slaughterhouse. The inspection must be repeated [ S.L.36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE immediately before slaughter if more than twenty-four hours have elapsed since the ante-mortem inspection. The ante-mortem inspection may be restricted to detecting injuries received during transport if the poultry has been inspected at the farm of origin within the last twenty-four hours and found to be healthy. In addition, the identity of the poultry must be proved on arrival at the slaughterhouse. (
- h)The ante-mortem inspection must be carried out under suitable lighting and must determine: - - whether the poultry is suffering from a disease which can be transmitted to humans or animals, whether it shows symptoms, or whether its general condition is such as to indicate that the disease may occur; whether it shows symptoms of a disorder affecting its general condition which may make the meat unfit for human consumption. (
- i)Poultry suffering from fowl plague, Newcastle disease, rabies, salmonellosis, cholera or ornithosis shall be declared unfit for human consumption. (
- j)Poultry may not be slaughtered consumption as fresh meat where - for human from the presence of sick poultry in the slaughterhouse, and from health information relating to their origin, it is established that they have been in contact with birds suffering from fowl plague, Newcastle disease, rabies, salmonellosis, cholera or ornithosis in such circumstances that the disease might have been transmitted to them. (
- k)The poultry referred to in paragraphs (h), (
- i)or (
- j)above must be slaughtered separately and after the slaughter of all other poultry. (
- l)Poultry brought into slaughter premises must be slaughtered immediately after stunning. (
- m)Bleeding must be complete and carried out in such a way that the blood cannot cause contamination outside the place of slaughter. (
- n)Slaughtered poultry must be plucked immediately and completely. (
- o)Evisceration must be carried out immediately. The carcass must be opened in such a way that the cavities and all the viscera can be inspected. For this purpose the liver, spleen and digestive tract must be extruded from the carcass in such a way that it is not contaminated and that the natural connections of those viscera remain until inspection. 7 8 [ S.L.36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE (
- p)After inspection the viscera which have been removed must be separated immediately from the carcass, and the parts unfit far human consumption removed at once. Viscera and parts of viscera remaining in the carcass must, with the exception of the kidneys, be removed entirely, if possible under satisfactory hygienic conditions. (
- q)It is forbidden to inflate poultry meat, cleanse it with cloth or fill the carcass with anything other than edible offal from poultry slaughtered in the slaughterhouse. Parts of poultry and offal must be packed in the manner described in paragraphs (
- y)and (
- z)of this regulation. (
- r)It is forbidden to cut the carcass or remove or treat the poultry meat before the inspection has been completed. The official veterinarian may prescribe any other handling required by the inspection. (
- s)Detained meat declared unfit for human consumption, feathers and waste must be removed as soon as possible to the rooms, spaces or containers provided for in paragraphs (h), (
- i)and (
- j)of regulation 6 and must be so handled that contamination is kept to a minimum. (
- t)After inspection and evisceration fresh poultry meat must be immediately cleaned and chilled in such a manner as to ensure that a continuous high level of hygiene is maintained. (
- u)All parts of the animal must be inspected immediately after slaughter. Post-mortem inspection must be carried out under suitable lighting. (
- v)The health markings must be made under the responsibility of the official veterinarian, who shall keep and maintain for that purpose: - - instruments for making the health marking on meat, to be handed to the assistant staff only at the actual time of marking and for the length of time necessary for this purpose; labels and wrappers where these already bear the stamp or mark provided for in paragraph (
- w)below and the seals referred to in paragraph (
- w)below. These labels, wrappers and seals shall be handed over in the required number to the assistant staff at the time when they must be used. (
- w)The health marking shall consist of the following: (
- i)the seal must be such that it cannot be re-used; it must be of resistant material meeting all hygienic requirements and large enough for the following compulsory information to appear on it in perfectly legible characters: POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE [ S.L.36.38 - in the centre, the veterinary approval number of the slaughterhouse, - date of slaughter or batch number that indicates such a date. The letters and figures must be at least two millimetres high; (
- ii)for packed carcasses and parts of carcasses, a mark stamped on the wrapper, which is closed in such a way that it cannot be re-used after opening. The wrapper must be of sufficiently strong material which meets all hygienic requirements, which is transparent and cannot transmit to the meat substances which may alter the nature, substance or quality of the food or which are harmful to human health; the mark must give the same information as that required for the seal and be printed in characters of the same size; (iii) for the offal not contained in the carcass, a mark stamped on the wrapper which must be closed, as described under sub-paragraph (
- ii)above or a stamp impressed on a label which is clearly visible and firmly fixed to the packaging. The label must be attached in such a way that it is destroyed when the packaging is opened. The stamp must be an oval ink stamp six point five centimetres wide and four point five centimetres high. The following information must appear on it in perfectly legible characters: - veterinary approval number of the slaughterhouse; - batch number. The letters must be point eight centimetres high and the figures one point one centimetres high. (
- x)After the chilling provided for in paragraph (t), fresh poultry meat must be kept at a temperature that must not at any time exceed + 4 degrees Celsius. (
- y)Packaging (e.g. packing cases, paperboard boxes) must meet all hygienic requirements, in particular: - they may not affect the oganoleptic character of the meat; they may not transmit to the meat substances which are harmful to human health; they must be strong enough to protect the meat adequately during transport and handling. Packing may only be re-used for meat when they are made of non-corrodible material which is easy to cleanse and has first bean cleaned and disinfected. (
- z)When fresh meat is packed in a packing material (e.g. plastic sheet) which is in direct contact with it, this 9 10 [ S.L.36.38 POULTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE must be done in accordance with hygienic requirements. Such packing must be transparent, colourless and meet the requirements of paragraph (
- y)above; they may rot be re-used for packing meat. Parts of poultry or offal separated from the carcass must always be wrapped in a firmly sealed, protective cover satisfying the above criteria. Transportation of meat. 9.
(1)Fresh poultry meat must be transported in vehicles and/ or containers designed, equipped and maintained in such a manner that the temperature specified in paragraph (x) of regulation 8 is ensured throughout transportation. The person responsible for this transportation is to ensure that the temperature is maintained below + 4 degrees Celsius.
(2)The vehicles and container used for the transportation of fresh poultry meat may not be used for any other purpose and are to be kept in a state of hygiene which prevents contamination of the food by odour or otherwise. After unloading of these products, vehicles and containers must be thoroughly cleansed, disinfected and, where necessary, deodorised.
(3)Fresh poultry meat may only be transported at the same time as substances likely to affect it or give it a smell if appropriate precautions are taken.
(4)Fresh poultry meat may not be transported in vehicles and/ or containers which or not clean and disinfected.
(5)The official veterinarian shall ensure before loading that the transport vehicles and/or the containers, besides the loading conditions, comply with the hygienic requirements of these Regulations.