ANIMAL HUSBANDRY INFORMATION

PRODUCT STANDARDS

Meat and Meat Products

The Government of India has put forward specific guidelines for meat and meat product exporters vide the Meat Food Products Order 1973. The main objective of the order is to maintain strict hygiene and sanitary standards to meet the quality requirements of food processing industry.

Meat producers should confine to following standards

• Manufacture of meat food products must be in conformity with the sanitary and other requirements.
• Persons who slaughters animals for the purpose of manufacturing meat food products must confirm to the hygienic and other requirements.
• Exporter has to observe the guideline as per Meat Food product Order for packing, marking and labeling containers of food products

Sanitary requirements

The producer of a meat food product need to comply the following requirement

• Describes the sanitary requirement to be maintained at the factory premises
• Must have a clean disinfected deodourised factory premises.
• The premise has to be located in a sanitary place.
• Should follow a stipulated minimum standard for drainage and plumping.
• The basic infrastructural requirement to be provided by the producer to the employee’s sanitation requirement should be described
• The factory must have a cold storage
• No employees with contagious disease are allowed to work in factory premises
• The basic hygiene and immunisation requirement of the employees should be ensured

Hygeine requirements

• Separate slaughter house having reception area of resting ground, lairage, slaughter hall, ancillary accommodation and refrigeration room with clean and dirty sections, with a continuous forward movement without any possibility of reversal, intersection or overlapping between the live animal and meat, and between meat and bye –products or waste
• Ensure that dogs, cats or birds do not have access.
• Facilities for the Meat Food Products Inspector to examine the meat in a suitable laboratory.
• Drainage system for blood
• Place for segregation and storage of condemned meat.
• A clean hygienic non slippery processing area for the 
• There must be a proper ante-mortem examination and inspection before the slaughter for diseases.
• Record of ante-mortem examination has to be kept in the given format
• There shall be provisions for humane slaughter
• A careful and detailed post-mortem examination of all slaughtered animals are to be carries out soon after slaughter
• Post-mortem examination has to be carried out in the given format and a report in the given format is to be recorded.

Packing standards

• Packing materials must be clean and free form contaminants.
• Meat products need to be securely packed and sealed
• Belts, runways and other can conveying equipment must be maintained in clean and good condition
• Specimen label has to be approved by the licensing authority before use.
• Labels must contain sufficient details such as the permitted colours preservative license Nos.  etc. in the prescribed format.

Requirement for the finished meat products as to poisonous metals

The finished meat  product must not contain any poisonous substance prescribed in the following table

Requirement for the finished meat products as to preservatives

The finished meat product must not contain any preservative prescribed in the following table

No Finished meat product must contain following Insecticide

Codex Standards for Meat and Meat Products

In order to develop India ’s food quality and safety requirements over and above the existing ones, the adoption of Codex standards is an appropriate measure to comply with. With the object of ensuring that a India’s interest is fully reflected in the formulation of Codex standards, a national food strategy to strengthen food quality and safety control procedures has been followed with respect to product standards. The Codex Procedural Manual, therefore, outlines the core functions of the Codex Contact Points with the rider that the operation of Codex Contact Points will differ in each country, depending on national legislation, government structures and practices.

All countries need adequate food control programs to ensure that national food supplies are safe, of good quality and available in adequate amounts at affordable prices to ensure an acceptable nutritional and health status for all population groups. Food control includes all activities carried out to ensure the quality, safety and honest presentation of food at all stages from primary production, through processing and storage, to marketing, and consumption. Following are the codex standards for animal products.

1. Codex for cooked cured ham

2. Codex for cooked cured meat

3. Codex for cooked cured pork shoulder

4. Codex for corned beef

5. Maximum residual limit in veterinary drugs

6. Microbial quality of spices used in meat processing

7. Pesticide residue in food

8. Quality standard for non-meat products in meat processing

9. Standard for contaminants and toxins in food

10. Standard Raw meat

11. Standard Table egg

12. Standards for food addictives

For more standards visit E-library.....

Last updated: 1-3-2007