Risk based meat hygiene--examples on food chain information and visual meat inspection.

The Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 refers in particularly to a broad spectrum of official supervision of products of animal origin. The supervision should be based on the most current relevant information which is available. The proposal presented includes forms for implementation of Food Chain Information (FCI) as laid down in the Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 as well as suggestions for the implementation of the visual inspection and criteria for a practical approach to assist the competent authority and the business operator. These suggestions are summarised in two forms including the FCI and practical information from the farm of origin as well as from the slaughterhouse needed for the competent authority to permit the visual meat inspection of fattening pigs. The requested information from the farm level include i.e. an animal loss rate during the fattening period and diagnostic findings of carcasses and respectively on organs of the animals during meat inspection procedure. The evaluation of findings in liver and pleura at the slaughterhouse level indicate a correlation to the general health status of the fattening conditions at farm level. The criteria developed are in principle suited for a "gold standard" of the health status of fattening pigs and the criteria may serve as practical implementation of the term Good Farming Practice in relation to consumer protection. Only for fattening pigs deriving from farms fulfilling this "gold standard" the visual meat inspection shall be permitted. It is proposed to integrate the two forms for FCI and additional information for authorisation of visual meat inspection for fattening pigs in the working document of the DG SANCO titled "Commission regulation of laying down specific rules on official controls for the inspection of meat" (SANCO/2696/2006).