Food Law News - UK - 2003

FSA Letter, 15 December 2003

MEAT HYGIENE - Guidance for Local Enforcement Authorities in England on the Private Slaughter of Livestock

Issue

Meat Hygiene Division of the Food Standards Agency has updated the Private Kills (Slaughter) Guidance, which was distributed to local authorities and other interested organisations in December 2001. A copy of the revised guidance, which replaces that issued in December 2001, is available from the FSA web site. (At time of writing, go to: http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/privatekill_guidance.PDF)

Where the new guidance applies

This new guidance is only applicable in England. FSA Wales has issued similar guidance reflecting Welsh legislation and FSA Northern Ireland will be issuing similar guidance in due course. FSA Scotland is revising earlier guidance issued in January 2003 and this will be available shortly.

Changes made to the guidance issued in December 2001

The guidance sets out the controls which apply to private kills and maintains the advice in the guidance issued in December 2001 that, except in certain limited circumstances, private on-farm slaughter of animals is illegal. However, the guidance has been revised to:

• incorporate the guidance on the TSE Regulations which was previously attached as Annex A in the original December 2001 guidance within the main body of the text (Paragraph 9);
• provide clarification as to which animals are covered by the TSE Regulations (Paragraph 11);
• include guidance on the private slaughter of poultry, farmed game birds and rabbits (Paragraph 12 and Annex C);
• provide guidance on animal welfare aspects at private slaughter (Paragraph 13);
• update and expand the points of contact (Annex A) to cover Defra contacts on Animal By-products, including SRM Disposal, and Animal Welfare issues; and
• expand the Question and Answer Brief (Annex B) to cover partnerships or joint owners of animals.