Volume 6: Human Health, 1989-96
Annex 1 to Chapter 4: Unfit meat and human food
Meat (Sterilisation and Staining) Regulations 1982 (the 1982 MSSR)
Overview of changes
Detailed provisions
Categories of meat and offal
Sterilisation
Staining

Overview of changes

4.795 Changes were brought into effect by the introduction of the 1982 MSSR. ¹ The principal changes were:

1. staining was reintroduced as an alternative to sterilisation; ²
2. different measures were required for different categories of meat and offal; and
3. a new system of movement permits intended to assist in tracking unfit meat was introduced.

The precise changes are set out in more detail below.

Detailed provisions

4.796 The 1982 MSSR revoked the 1969 Regulations. They applied to particular categories of 'meat' (including 'offal'), and required, unless certain exceptions applied, that the meat or offal in question be:

1. sterilised;
2. subject to restrictions on removal, prior to sterilisation;
3. not sold, prior to sterilisation; and
4. subject to restrictions on storage and freezing, prior to sterilisation.

One of the exceptions available in certain cases required that the meat or offal in question be stained. The discussion below deals first with the relevant categories of meat and offal, second with the procedure for staining and sterilisation, third with the requirements of the Regulations and the exceptions to those requirements, and fourth with the enforcement of the Regulations. ³

Categories of meat and offal

4.797 The 1982 MSSR defined 'meat' to mean carcass meat, poultry meat, and offal. Each of these terms was itself defined in the Regulations, and for present purposes the first and third are relevant:

1. 'carcass meat' was defined as the flesh of an animal, including thick or thin skirt, and heads of cattle or swine, but excluding offal; and
2. 'offal' was defined as including separate pieces of fat, but not including thick or thin skirt, heads of cattle or swine, or poultry offal.

Also relevant is the definition of 'knacker meat' which was defined as carcass meat and offal from an animal slaughtered in, or from a carcass brought into, a knacker's yard situated in the UK. ⁴

4.798 Two specific categories of offal were defined in the 1982 MSSR: ⁵

1. 'green offal' was defined as stomachs and intestines derived from animals and the contents of such organs; and
2. 'specified offal' was defined as hearts, kidneys, livers and lungs derived from an animal and which, in the case of an animal in a slaughterhouse, had been rejected as unfit for human consumption under the relevant provisions for that purpose. ⁶

4.799 For the purposes of the 1982 MSSR, the following categories of meat were to be presumed, until the contrary was proved, to be unfit for human consumption:

1. knacker meat; ⁷
2. meat from any variety of cattle, sheep, pig, equine animal or goat, which had died or been slaughtered in any place other than a slaughterhouse or knacker's yard, or which has been brought to such a place after having died or been slaughtered; ⁸
3. meat which had not been handled or kept in a slaughterhouse in a hygienic manner. ⁹

Sterilisation

4.800 'Sterilisation' was defined as being either:

1. treated by boiling or by steaming under pressure until every piece of meat is cooked throughout;
2. dry-rendered, digested, or solvent processed into technical tallow, greases, glues, feeding meals or fertilisers; or
3. subjected to another process other than those previously described in this definition which results in all parts of the meat no longer having the appearance of raw meat and which inactivated all vegetative forms of human pathogenic organisms in the meat. ¹⁰

Staining

4.801 The 1982 MSSR defined 'stained' to mean treated with a solution of the colouring agent Black PN or Brilliant Black BN (E151, Colour Index 197 No. 28440), the solution to be of such a strength that the colouring on the stained meat is clearly visible. The definition added that for this purpose 'treated' meant that all pieces of meat not smaller than primal cuts had been opened by multiple and deep incisions, and the whole surface of the meat had been covered with a solution as aforesaid either by immersing the meat in, or spraying or otherwise applying, the solution.