Standards to identify a meat product as edible
Safe Food for Canadians Regulations: 125,126,145,146,147,156,157,158,159

Rationale

Meat can sometimes be the cause of human food borne illnesses. The main contributing factors to the overall risk to the safety of a meat product are the incoming food animals with their level of cleanliness and health status and the manner in which they are manufactured /transformed into a meat product. Some conditions that may put at risk the safety of the derived meat product can only be seen when the animal is alive, or can be better managed prior to food animal entering the actual slaughter process. Other conditions are not noticeable on the live animal and need to be properly exposed in order to properly observe them on the carcass therefore preparing the carcass properly is essential.

Certain principles and criteria have been established to mitigate and reduce these various food safety risks to an acceptable level and need to be implemented in order to determine that the end meat product is fit for human consumption.

As well, blood by nature is an ideal medium for bacterial growth and as such hygienic measures must be implemented to avoid contamination during collection if it is to be deemed fit for human consumption.

Finally, Trichinella spp in pork and in equine and Cysticercosis bovis in bovine can all have very detrimental impacts on the health of humans if consumed in a raw or undercooked product, whereas they have little to no impact on the food animal. These pathogens can potentially go undetected because of the very small lesions that they cause, and considering preparation/consumption practices of these meat products, it is required that management appropriate to the pathogen must be implemented to ensure that the final meat product is safe for the consumer.

What this means to your food business

To help you understand these requirements, specific criteria and examples are outlined below. The examples are not exhaustive but help illustrate the intent of the requirement and offer ideas on what you could do to comply. Key terms throughout the text have been hyperlinked to the SFCR glossary.

Identification of edible meat products: 125,126,145,146,156

You only identify a meat product as edible after ensuring that:

  • it is derived from a food animal that you subjected to an ante-mortem examination as per the guidance document Standards for ante-mortem examination and inspection
  • it is derived from a food animal that was subjected to an ante-mortem inspection by a CFIA official, as applicable. For example,
    • you get confirmation that the food animal is fit for slaughter via a suitable document, such as a signed ante-mortem inspection card
    • you get confirmation that food animals held on ante-mortem examination or inspection have received a detailed ante-mortem inspection by a veterinary inspector
  • it is derived from a carcass that you dressed, and whose parts you prepared, as per the guidelines in Dressing procedures and preparation of edible parts to remove any parts that at are not by nature edible and to allow better visualisation of all parts that may harbor a risk

    You only partially dress a carcass (for example leave the hide on) when it has been previously authorized by CFIA and it does not hinder the detection of defects during the post-mortem evaluation of the carcass and its parts, and only when the food animal does not present any deviation on ante-mortem examination or inspection;

  • it is derived from a carcass that has been subject to, along with its parts, a post-mortem inspection or examination, as the case may be, as per the Post-mortem evaluation procedures document and it has not been determined inedible by the evaluator as per the Disposition manual for red meat species; as well the meat product is not listed or does not contain anything listed in the Inedible meat products reference (under development);
  • Resources to help you meet these requirements:
  • it does not contain any specified risk material (SRM): if you process cattle, you follow all measures set out in the Guidance on specified risk material reference to ensure that SRM has been effectively removed and has not contaminated edible meat product
  • it is not contaminated. You are responsible to remove any contamination and defects; Contamination can have a biological (E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Campylobacter, other pathogenic micro-organisms), chemical (veterinary drugs, sanitation chemicals, pesticides) or physical (needles, metal, grease) origin. Many pathogens reside in the gastrointestinal tract of food animals and the external surfaces of food animals are often contaminated with feces that could potentially contaminate meat products during dressing and evisceration procedures. Implementation of control measures at the farm or at the establishment to reduce the level of contamination of food animals prior to the slaughter is recommended
    • you prevent contamination of the meat products by ensuring hygienic procedures at all steps of production, especially during the dressing and the evisceration
    • you implement a zero tolerance approach over visible contamination such as fecal, ingesta and milk. You promptly remove in a hygienic manner any foreign matter or reject any parts contaminated with it (for example, grease, floor dirt, pus, hair, scald water). You ensure that carcasses are free from contamination before you do a final wash of the carcass necessary to remove bone dust and blood
    • Resources to help you meet these requirements:
      • you manage contamination as per the Controls on contamination
      • you use process controls as described in the Process controls reference (under development) to demonstrate that you are effectively removing these defects
    • you do not use, in the course of stunning a food animal, a percussion device that injects air or a pithing rod: risk of general dispersal of emboli that main contain brain tissue or foreign matter such as hair or micro-organisms render these methods unacceptable
    • you implement control measures to mitigate the risks of adulterants such as bacteria (for example, Salmonella, Campylobacter), chemical residues (veterinary drugs, microbial interventions) or foreign material (for example, needles, bone or metal fragments, bullet, microchip, etc.)
    • Resources to help you meet these requirements:
    • you implement control measures to mitigate the risks of E. coli O157:H7 and that meet the requirements set out in the Incorporated by reference (IBR) document Preventive control requirements for biological hazards in meat products
    • Resources to help you meet these requirements:
    • where the contamination cannot be eliminated by a treatment or process, or where a substance is distributed in the entire carcass or any meat product at unacceptable levels (for example, chemicals, veterinary drugs, allergens, etc.), you treat the product as inedible; and
    • you remove all blood clots, bone splinters, defects and other extraneous matter using hygienic procedures. Such defects are usually trimmed off using the appropriate equipment in the slaughter area, in the cooler or during deboning.
    • Resources to help you meet these requirements:
      • you use process controls as described in the Process controls reference (under development) to demonstrate that you are effectively removing these defects

Processing of blood: 147

You only identify blood as edible after ensuring that:

  • you use a closed container connected directly to a cannula or a hollow knife in order to avoid contamination (for example, hairs, dust, foreign material, etc.) of the harvested blood. Simply holding an open pail under the carcass is not acceptable. The equipment used for the collection of blood, which is done either on an individual or lot basis, is adequately rinsed and sanitized between each carcass or lot, as appropriate
  • you prevent blood clotting by either using approved anti-coagulants or mechanical defibrination. The latter must be done with suitable beaters (not with hands), which are rinsed and sanitized after each carcass
  • you protect collected blood from contamination by using suitable containers or a bulk tank and send it promptly for refrigeration; and
  • you identify as inedible any blood associated to a carcass that has been determined inedible

Management for certain specific contaminants: Trichinella spp in pork, Trichinella spp in equine and Cysticercosis bovis in bovine: 157, 158, 159

Trichinella spp – Pork:157

If you produce a pork product that could be consumed without any cooking by the consumer, you implement one of the following measures to ensure that the pork product can be consumed without risk with respect to Trichinella spp:

  • you apply a treatment process to the pork product that inactivates Trichinella spp. as per Control recommendations for the inactivation of Trichinella spiralis in pork products
  • you ensure you receive a negative result on one of the following approved tests for detecting Trichinilla spp: magnetic stirrer artificial digestion assay; or
  • you obtain from the primary producer documentation that demonstrates that the incoming hogs are considered at negligible risk of infection by Trichinella spp through demonstration of compliance with an on-farm food safety program as per the On farm controls for Trichinella spiralis in pork reference (under development).

Trichinella spp – Equine:158

If you produce a meat product that is derived from an equine, you ensure you receive a negative result on one of the following approved tests for detecting Trichinella spp before identifying the meat product as edible:

  • magnetic stirrer artificial digestion assay

Cysticercosis bovis – Bovine:159

If you produce a meat product that is derived from a bovine, you implement the measures described in section 11.2.1 of the Disposition manual for red meat species; for any carcass that shows evidence of Cysticercosis like-lesions on post-mortem evaluation, to ensure that the beef product can be consumed without risk with respect to Cysticercosis bovis.

Date modified: