Volume 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health
3. Red meat hygiene at the slaughterhouse
Regulation of the production of meat for human consumption
Food Act 1984
Food Safety Act 1990
Slaughterhouse infrastructure and conditions
Admission of animals and carcasses to a slaughterhouse

Food Act 1984

3.20 This measure consolidated earlier primary legislation, notably the Food and Drugs Act 1955. It sought to protect public health in terms of food safety and food standards, by making it an offence to render food injurious to human health (food safety control) or to sell food for human consumption which was not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser (food standards requirements).

3.21 The Act applied only to England and Wales, and the Ministers who were granted the powers to make Orders or Regulations in England were the Minister of Agriculture and the Secretary of State for Social Services. ¹ In Wales, these two Ministers plus the Secretary of State for Wales were given those powers. In both countries the Ministers were required to act jointly, except in relation to a very few situations where the Minister of Agriculture alone was responsible. The concept of joint responsibility gave rise to the need for cooperation between Departments.

3.22 Food standards issues relevant to BSE were those dealing with the composition of food (section 4) and the description of food (section 7). The former was concerned with the addition of substances as an ingredient and with processes and treatment in the preparation of food, while the latter dealt with the labelling and marking of food.

3.23 The Act made it an offence to sell, or to forward to any person to sell, or to prepare for sale, any food intended for human consumption but which was unfit for that purpose. Anyone licensed to keep a slaughterhouse under the Slaughterhouses Act 1974 who was convicted of an offence under this section of the 1984 Act was liable to have the licence cancelled (section 8(4)). Similarly, section 12, which dealt specifically with the products of knacker's yards, prohibited the sale for human consumption of any part of, or product derived wholly or partly from, an animal which had been slaughtered in a knacker's yard or whose carcass had been brought there. Anyone licensed to keep a knacker's yard who was convicted of such an offence could have their licence cancelled.

3.24 The Act also promoted the principles of food hygiene by enabling Ministers to 'make such regulations as appear to them to be expedient for securing the observance of sanitary and cleanly conditions and practices' in connection with 'the sale of food for human consumption' and 'the importation, preparation, transport, storage, packaging, wrapping, exposure for sale, service or delivery of food intended for sale or sold for human consumption' (section 13). Regulations made under this section could provide for, among other matters:

1. securing the inspection of animals intended for slaughter, and of carcasses of animals, for the purpose of ascertaining whether meat intended for sale for human consumption was fit for such consumption;
2. requiring the staining or sterilisation, in accordance with the Regulations, of meat which was unfit for human consumption, or which was derived from animals slaughtered in knacker's yards or from carcasses brought into knacker's yards, or which, though not unfit for human consumption, was not intended for such consumption; and
3. regulating generally the treatment and disposal of any food unfit for human consumption.

3.25 Section 13 was an almost unamended re-enactment of similar powers in the Food and Drugs Act 1955. The Meat (Sterilisation and Staining) Regulations 1982, made under the 1955 Act, were the model and precedent for the Regulations which introduced the ban on Specified Bovine Offal in food for human consumption (the 'human SBO ban'), as described in vol. 6: Human Health, 1989-96; these are discussed in some detail in the Annex to this chapter.

3.26 Because of the detail necessarily involved in dealing with the whole range of food, and the need for flexibility of application in widely varying circumstances, section 13(8) of the Food Act 1984 empowered Ministers to publish codes of practice. These codes could cover matters subject to any Regulations under this section in order to give advice and guidance to those responsible for complying with those Regulations. Subsection (9) repeated the sanction of cancellation for any licence held for a slaughterhouse or knacker's yard by someone convicted under those Regulations.

3.27 Section 33 enabled Ministers to make Regulations, known as the Milk and Dairies Regulations, to prevent danger to health from the sale of infected or contaminated milk or of milk suspected of being infected, while section 35 and schedule 3 defined the diseases of cattle, the milk from which was prohibited from sale, and enabled Regulations to be made which extended the list of defined diseases.

3.28 Secondary legislation under the Food Act was in almost every case made by Statutory Instrument and was subject to the negative resolution procedure. Moreover, there was a requirement on the Minister to consult organisations that appeared to him to be representative of interests substantially affected, before making Regulations or Orders under most sections of the Act; including sections 4, 7 or 13 (composition of food, labelling or description of food, and food hygiene). In this respect, the Food Act differed from the Animal Health Act but was similar to other primary legislation.

3.29 Because the Act and its predecessors gave the powers of making secondary legislation to two Ministers jointly (or in Wales, three), arrangements to ensure that this worked smoothly in practice had been developed over many years. The report of a Whitehall interdepartmental Working Group on Public Health: Machinery of Government Issues noted in October 1989 that:

The effect was to make the Ministry of Health the central Department responsible for food hygiene work in England and Wales and for health advice on food matters, although many specific responsibilities, including those for the hygiene of meat, milk and eggs remained with MAFF. ²

3.30 Enforcement of the 1984 Food Act rested with the food and drug authorities, ³ which were responsible for dealing with injurious food, food labelling, the description of food, and some milk and dairy matters, and with local authorities, ⁴ responsible for enforcing slaughterhouse and meat hygiene Regulations. Central government ⁵ retained some specific responsibilities mainly to do with the Milk and Dairies Regulations and the power to obtain details of food ingredients. The Minister of Agriculture acting alone exercised the power to appoint veterinary inspectors concerned with ensuring the safety of milk and dairy products. But there was no central guidance on the way in which food enforcement should be carried out by the food and drug authorities, nor was there any requirement to register food premises. This meant that standards of enforcement could vary in different parts of the country.

3.31 The Act, however, also imposed the duty of enforcement on 'local authorities', where that duty was not expressly placed on the Minister or the food and drug authorities by the Act or Regulations (Section 74(2)). 'Local authorities' for this purpose meant District Councils, London Borough Councils and metropolitan District Councils. Hence, outside London and the metropolitan areas, enforcement of the Act was divided between the specific responsibilities of the food and drug authorities (the County Councils) and the residual responsibilities for such matters as the condition of food premises and food preparation and hygiene, exercised by the District Councils.

Food Safety Act 1990

3.32 The Food Safety Act 1990 largely maintained and extended the powers contained in the Food Act 1984. It also replaced the Food and Drugs (Scotland) Act 1954, thereby bringing the previously separate arrangements for England and Wales and for Scotland under a single enabling Act.

Slaughterhouse infrastructure and conditions

3.33 In 1986, slaughterhouse infrastructure and conditions were regulated by the Slaughterhouse (Hygiene) Regulations 1977, ⁶ made jointly under the Food and Drugs Act 1955 by the Minister of Agriculture and the Secretary of State for Social Services. ⁷ Enforcement rested with local authorities. The Regulations required that a slaughterhouse should be constructed so as:

1. to provide adequate space and facilities for the efficient performance of meat inspection;
2. to permit clean operations to be carried out adequately separated from those operations liable to give rise to contamination or pollution; and
3. to permit the functioning of all operations under hygienic conditions.

3.34 The Regulations imposed upon slaughterhouse operators requirements on construction, layout, drainage, equipment, maintenance, cleanliness, ventilation, lighting, water supply, management and personal hygiene. Slaughterhouses had to be constructed so as to ensure that those areas in which it was necessary to handle meat for human consumption were entirely separate from those where meat rejected as being unfit for human consumption was handled. ⁸ Separate areas for handling meat for human consumption considerably reduced the possibility of contamination of fit meat with unfit material.

Admission of animals and carcasses to a slaughterhouse

3.35 The 1977 Regulations stated that no person should bring into a slaughterhouse an animal which he knew or suspected to be diseased or injured unless the animal was accompanied by a veterinary certificate. The certificate was required to indicate that the vet was satisfied, after conducting the appropriate enquiries and taking and testing any necessary samples, that the animal was not suffering from any disease or condition likely to render the whole carcass unfit for human consumption, and that the animal had not received any medicament, antibiotic or chemotherapeutic which might do likewise. The certificate was to be handed to the authorised officer immediately on arrival at the slaughterhouse. Slaughterhouses were also required to ensure that animals known or suspected to be diseased were slaughtered and dressed either at a different time or in a different place from other animals. ⁹

3.36 There was a further prohibition on the bringing into a slaughterhouse of an animal which was not intended for human consumption, ¹⁰ and there were restrictions on the admission of carcasses. First, no person was to bring, or permit to be brought, into the slaughterhouse the carcass of an animal which had died or had been killed and not bled. ¹¹ An exception was made where an animal had died in transit to the slaughterhouse, but in that event the carcass was to be removed from the slaughterhouse immediately following the carrying out of any necessary examination. The result was that only the carcass of an animal that had been killed and bled could be brought into, and remain, at a slaughterhouse.

3.37 Even this restriction was subject to certain requirements affecting undressed and dressed carcasses respectively. An undressed carcass had to be accompanied by a veterinary certificate upon being brought into the slaughterhouse. ¹² This certificate had to identify the owner of the carcass, to describe the carcass and any identification marks, to identify the reason for the slaughter of the animal and to contain a statement as follows:

It is my opinion, after making due enquiries and taking and testing any necessary samples, that the animal from which this carcass was produced was not affected with any disease or condition liable to render the whole carcass unfit for human consumption and to the best of my knowledge and belief had not received any medicament, antibiotic or chemotherapeutic which might do likewise. ¹³

3.38 Where a carcass was admitted already dressed, that carcass was required to be accompanied by either:

1. a certificate certifying that the carcass and its offal had been inspected and passed fit for human consumption; or
2. its offal, including the stomach and intestines, and a veterinary certificate in the same terms as that required for an undressed carcass (see above). ¹⁴

3.39 In addition, the Fresh Meat Export (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1981 imposed on slaughterhouses exporting meat to other EU states further requirements relating to infrastructure. While these requirements were not relevant to BSE, other aspects of the Regulations, relating to ante-mortem inspection and certain elements of carcass-dressing, were relevant to the disease and are discussed in the following section.