Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 3: Northern Ireland
12. Setting the scene
The rendering industry

12.15 The Inquiry was told that red meat waste from Northern Ireland slaughterhouses would have moved 'probably exclusively' to Northern Ireland rendering plants. ¹ Between 1986 and 1996 Northern Ireland renderers produced sufficient meat and bone meal (MBM) to supply the local animal feed industry and produce a surplus for export. ² Thus, in general, MBM was not imported from elsewhere, the exception to this rule being a single large import of 200 tonnes of MBM in 1983, which has been identified as a possible source of the infection in Northern Ireland. Around 85 per cent of the total output of MBM in Northern Ireland was produced by the two main rendering plants. ³

12.16 There were some differences in the processes used by Northern Ireland (NI) renderers. For example, Northern Ireland stopped using the hydrocarbon solvent extraction process in 1973, whereas renderers in England continued to use the method up until the mid-1980s, and in Scotland even later. ⁴ The results of a survey conducted by MAFF in early 1988 indicated that during the 1980s time/temperature combinations in NI rendering plants had been reduced but not to the same extent as had occurred at some plants in Great Britain. ⁵ The transition period from batch to continuous processing occurred in Northern Ireland plants during 1983-84, whereas in England it took much longer (from 1971-85). ⁶