Contributing 

Are slaughterhouses regulated?

Leia Doyle

Are slaughterhouses regulated?

Originally passed in 1958, the law that is enforced today by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) was passed as the Humane Slaughter Act of 1978. This Act requires the proper treatment and humane handling of all food animals slaughtered in USDA inspected slaughter plants.

What are the basic requirements in slaughtering?

Basic equipment needed for the slaughtering operation:

  • stunning gun, electrical head tongs or simple stunning equipment for direct blow.
  • knives:
  • a sharpening steel.
  • oil or water sharpening stone.
  • scabbard and belt for holding knives.
  • meat saw – hand or electric and cleaver.

Who regulates slaughterhouses?

In those laws, USDA-FSIS is given primary authority for oversight of meat products that will be offered for sale. One of the main components of that oversight is the requirement that the slaughter of livestock and processing of meat products be subject to continuous inspection by government inspectors.

Are all slaughterhouses USDA approved?

According to USDA data, California has just four approved slaughterhouses. Farmers and ranchers are free to use slaughterhouses that are not inspected by the USDA. But meat from animals slaughtered there “must be sold to the consumer before it is butchered.”

What is the twenty eight hour law?

The statute provides that animals cannot be transported by “rail carrier, express carrier or common carrier” (except by air or water) for more than 28 consecutive hours without being unloaded for five hours for rest, water and food. (a) Confinement.

What happens to blood from a slaughterhouse?

But what happens to the vast quantities of blood, the other by-product of an abattoir? After the blood flows down the drains of the killing floor, it’s collected in giant tanks. Chemicals in the blood make their way into cookies to provide iron fortification and into cakes to replace egg whites.

What happens if the carcass freezes too soon after slaughtering?

If the carcass is cooled too quickly then some of the muscles may contract and, if as is likely, the contraction is not followed by relaxation, the resulting meat is tough, a phenomenon known as cold shortening.

What is the prime act?

The PRIME Act would give individual states freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores.

What animals are required to be slaughtered humanely?

Although more than 168 million chickens (excluding broilers) and around 9 billion broiler chickens are killed for food in the United States yearly, the Humane Slaughter Act specifically mentions only cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep and swine.

What is the biggest slaughterhouse in America?

On October 1, 1992, the meat-processing giant Smithfield Foods opened the largest slaughterhouse in the world in Tar Heel, North Carolina.

What happens inside a slaughterhouse?

At a slaughterhouse, you have big animals entering at one end, and small cuts of meat leaving at the other end. In between are hundreds of workers, mainly using handheld knives, processing the meat. It’s during the evisceration of the animal, or the removal of the hide, that manure can get on the meat.

What does the 28 hour law protect?

a carrier transporting animals interstate “may not confine animals in a vehicle or vessel for more than 28 consecutive hours without unloading the animals for feeding, water, and rest.” If transport will exceed 28 consecutive hours, animals must be unloaded in a humane manner, put into pens equipped with feed and water …

Why is the 28 hour law important?

How do they kill cows in a slaughterhouse?

Slaughter: ‘They Die Piece by Piece’ After they are unloaded, cows are forced through a chute and shot in the head with a captive-bolt gun meant to stun them. But because the lines move so quickly and many workers are poorly trained, the technique often fails to render the animals insensible to pain.

What is chilling of carcass?

Spray chilling, a system whereby chilled water is applied to carcasses during the early part of postmortem cooling, is used to control carcass shrinkage and to improve chilling rates through evaporative cooling.

What is the difference between frozen and chilled meat?

In the food industry, freezing usually refers to deep freezing, or lowering the temperature of product below -18°C. In contrast, chilling refers to the rapid cooling of a food product from its manufacturing temperature down to refrigerated or cold temperatures, usually from 1 to 4°C.