Volume 13: Industry Processes and Controls
2.
The slaughtering industry
Some features of the industry
Domestic and export-approved slaughterhouses
2.3 No meat can be sold for human consumption unless it comes from a licensed slaughterhouse. 1 Therefore, farmers must have their animals killed in slaughterhouses in order to convert them into human food and associated by-products. For this reason, slaughterhouses have traditionally been a checkpoint for inspecting meat to ensure its fitness and quality, as well as the point at which a body such as the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) can conveniently levy its charges on animals. The statutory controls applying to slaughterhouses, and the responsibilities of the MLC and other bodies, are explained in vol. 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health.
2.4 Slaughterhouses seek to maximise profits by maximising their throughput (the number of animals killed). 2 This results in an emphasis on processing animals quickly, which can conflict with the interests of hygiene. The slaughterhouse depends crucially on those downstream of it, particularly the renderers, to handle the by-products and waste it produces. The Slaughterhouse (Hygiene) Regulations 1977 3 require that animal by-products be removed from the slaughterhouse within 48 hours of slaughter. While meat is the primary and most valuable product of the slaughterhouses, by-products are also important, as traditionally their sale has covered slaughtering costs. 4 Indeed, they are often referred to as the 'fifth quarter' of the cow.
2.5 Over the last 20 years the number of slaughterhouses has fallen steeply in England, Scotland and Wales, as many smaller ones have gone out of business (see Figure 2.1). 5 There has also been a gradual decrease in slaughterhouses in Northern Ireland. 6
Figure 2.1: Slaughterhouse numbers in England, Wales and Scotland, 1971/72-1995/96
Source: Monopolies and Mergers Commission (M4 tab 3)
2.6 This decline has been due to a number of factors, including a drive to take advantage of economies of scale, and the need to comply with higher environmental and health standards. At the same time, there has been a significant drop in the number of cattle slaughtered - from a high point of 5.4 million in 1975 to 2.3 million in 1996 (see Figure 2.2). By 1996/97, of the 391 slaughterhouses handling cattle in the UK, the 15 largest were accounting for 40 per cent of all kills. At the other end of the scale, the 212 smallest slaughterhouses - widely scattered throughout the UK, and often run as part of an individual butcher's business, particularly in rural areas - handled 2.5 per cent of the market. 7
Figure 2.2: Number of cattle (comprising adult cattle, steers, heifers, young bulls and calves) slaughtered in the United Kingdom, 1973-96
Source: Meat and Livestock Commission (M44 tab 4)
2.7 The operations of a large slaughterhouse differ markedly from those of small premises, many of which open just a few times a week to deal with a few animals. Regulation and enforcement have had to take account of this wide difference in the size and nature of businesses in the industry.
2.8 Historically, ownership of slaughterhouses has been split between the private and public sector. The number of publicly owned slaughterhouses declined steadily over the 1960s, and more quickly after 1972, when local authorities were no longer required to provide slaughtering facilities. 8 By 1974/75, of the 1,601 slaughterhouses in England, Scotland and Wales, only 9 per cent were publicly owned (and half of those were managed by private operators), although they were still responsible for 25 per cent of total throughput. 9 Today, there are virtually no public slaughterhouses in Great Britain. 10 In Northern Ireland there were 11 public slaughterhouses in 1969, but by 1994 there were only two. 11
Domestic and export-approved slaughterhouses
2.9 As explained in vol. 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health, hygienic production of meat used to be governed in England and Wales by Regulations made under the Slaughterhouses Act 1974, the Food Act 1984 and the Food Safety Act 1990. Before the introduction of a single European standard on 1 January 1993, 12 there was, effectively, a two-tier system of regulation. The Regulations required that every carcass slaughtered in a domestic slaughterhouse be subjected to inspection by a qualified inspector so as to establish the fitness for human consumption of all, or part, of the carcass. The Regulations for export slaughterhouses were largely the same as those for domestic plants with the addition of certain specific requirements relating to the infrastructure of the plant, the dressing procedures and the level of inspection.
2.10 The most important differences were in the level of inspection. For instance, in domestic slaughterhouses ante-mortem inspection of animals (ie, before slaughter) was not required until January 1991 13 and, before 1 January 1993, there was no requirement for veterinary supervision of meat inspection. Inspection procedures are described below. In 1988 about two-thirds of the cattle slaughtered in England and Wales were killed in slaughterhouses which had been approved as exporters to the European Community/Union. 14
1 The slaughterhouse has a number of names, which are used interchangeably. The most common of these are the 'abattoir' and the more modern phrase preferred by the industry, the 'meat plant'. For consistency, wherever possible, the term 'slaughterhouse' is used
2 M44 tab 4, p. 12
3 L1 tab 3C
4 Simon Harris and David H Pickard, Livestock Slaughtering in Britain: A Changing Industry, Ashford, Centre for European Agricultural Studies, 1979, p. 14 (M45 tab 3)
5 Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Animal Waste: a report on the supply of animal waste in England and Wales and in Scotland, London , HMSO, 1993, p. 9 (M4 tab 3)
6 DN01 tab 14
7 Meat and Livestock Commission, Economic Overview of the UK Beef Industry, June 1998, p. 13 (M44 tab 4)
8 Harris & Pickard, Livestock Slaughtering in Britain: A Changing Industry, p. 6 (M45 tab 3)
9 Harris & Pickard, Livestock Slaughtering in Britain: A Changing Industry, p. 6 (M45 tab 3)
10 Meat and Livestock Commission, Economic Overview of the UK Beef Industry, p. 13 (M44 tab 4)
11 DN01 tab 14
12 As a result of Council Directive 91/497/EEC (L18 tab 19), the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1992 (L12 tab 8) were adopted
13 Except in Scotland, where ante-mortem inspection of every animal slaughtered in both domestic and export market slaughterhouses had been required since 1961
14 The European Union (EU) came into existence on 1 November 1993 as a result of the Maastricht Treaty. It incorporated but did not replace the European Community. Throughout the volumes of this Report, the term EU is generally used for consistency's sake (even if sometimes chronologically incorrect), except where specific reference is made to the functions conferred by the European Community Treaty or to its legal effect
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