Operational guideline: Poultry and rabbit evisceration floor procedures other than post-mortem

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1.0 Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspection staff on verifying holder's compliance to Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) while conducting inspection activities on the evisceration floor in poultry and rabbit slaughter establishments.

This guideline provides information on additional activities to be carried out on the evisceration floor, other than post-mortem inspection/examination procedures:

  • poultry online and offline reprocessing and reconditioning
  • poultry and rabbit parts salvaging
  • poultry feet or paw harvesting
  • poultry with head and/or feet-on
  • rabbit with head-on

This document is intended to be used in conjunction with other guidance documents as referenced in section 3.0.

2.0 Authorities

The inspection powers, control actions and enforcement actions authorized by the above legislation are identified and explained in the Operational guideline: Food regulatory response guidelines.

3.0 Reference documents

4.0 Definitions

Definitions are located in the following documents or as a defined word where it is intended to supersede the definitions within the glossary documents:

5.0 Acronyms

Acronyms are spelled out the first time they are used in this document and are consolidated in the Food business line acronyms list.

6.0 Operational Guideline

Licence holders must identify and analyze the biological hazards that present a risk of contamination of their food (SFCR 47(1)). They must prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level the hazards identified by using control measures that are shown by evidence to be effective, including any treatment or process (SFCR 47(2)). The licence holders who slaughter animals are required to prepare, keep, and maintain a written preventive control plan (PCP) (SFCR 89(1) (c)). As per SFCR 88, any person who is required to prepare, keep, and maintain a PCP must implement that plan.

As per paragraphs 125 (1)(c) and (e) of SFCR, a licence holder may identify a meat product as edible only if the carcass of the food animal from which the meat product is derived is dressed or partially dressed, and if the meat product is edible and is not contaminated.

As per subsection 145(1) of SFCR, a licence holder must dress the carcass as described in paragraph (b) in the case of the carcass of bird or in paragraph (d) in the case of the carcass of a rabbit. As per subsection 145(2) of SFCR, the licence holder is also authorized to partially dress a carcass if the licence holder has established that there is a market for partially dressed carcasses; and if the licence holder's procedure for partial dressing is such that the carcass is sufficiently dressed to enable a post-mortem examination or inspection.

As per section 146 of SFCR, a licence holder must remove any blood clot, bone splinter and extraneous matter from the carcass of a food animal and the parts of the carcass and must identify what was removed as inedible.

As per section 156 of SFCR, a licence holder must subject contaminated meat product to a treatment or process that eliminates the contamination; or identify it as inedible.

The industry guidance for poultry and rabbit, published by CFIA, provides a means to verify that overall control measures are effective in meeting SFCA and SFCR.

If a licence holder does not follow CFIA guidance and presents a different means of meeting SFCR requirements, the inspection team should consult CFIA specialists to verify the validity of the approach.

Licence holders can use the following to gather and document evidence that the control measures used are validated:

The evidence showing a control measure is effective (validation) should include, among other things, the reference used to design the validation protocol and a detailed description of the operational parameters implemented at the time of validation. When collecting data, the licence holder should consider worst-case scenarios and use sampling techniques that are accurately representative of their operation and of the control measure being assessed.

Since various intrinsic (product-related) and extrinsic (external conditions-related) factors can affect the shelf life, licence holders should consider revalidating the shelf life to ensure that any change in the process or corrective action procedure does not impact the validated shelf life.

CFIA staff should use Operational guideline: Inspection of evidence showing that control measures are effective to assess licence holder's validation.

Verifying licence holder's compliance

To verify the licence holder's compliance with regulatory requirements for the poultry offline and online reprocessing and reconditioning (including the use of microbial control interventions), salvaging, partial dressing of poultry and rabbit carcasses, poultry feet harvesting and poultry offline reprocessing/reconditioning/salvaging stations, perform the following tasks at the frequency described in the program direction for preventive control inspection (PCI) frequencies for food listed under Food program work planning documents (accessible only on the Government of Canada network):

Note: additional export requirements may apply to the offline reprocessing/reconditioning of poultry carcasses. Refer to Meat Electronic Export Certification (Ecert) (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) for more details on specific country requirements and to Annex 2 – Export food - Implementation verification tasks of Operational procedure: Food preventive control inspection – Implementation verification for the verification tasks to be performed.

When conducting inspection activities related to evisceration floor procedures other than post-mortem inspection/examination, inspector could come across observations that may require them to perform additional inspection tasks (for example, when there are 3 consecutive corrective measure(s) evaluation tests rejected for the Carcass Dressing Standard (CDS) test, inadequate dressing procedures, issues/concerns related to preparation of edible parts or controls on contamination and localized pathology, etc.). Refer to the following references for guidance when a potential non-compliance is observed:

Refer to section 6.2.1.1 of the Operational guidance: Poultry and rabbit chilling and water retention and 3.5 of Poultry and rabbit – Chilling, water retention and freezing procedure for more details on delayed evisceration time before chilling.

6.1 Poultry

In a poultry slaughter establishment, the licence holder may choose to handle carcasses accidentally contaminated with gastro-intestinal contents and carcasses with localized pathologies using:

  • offline and/or online reprocessing/reconditioning (refer to section 1.1 Poultry online and offline reprocessing and reconditioning of this document for more details)

    Note: online reprocessing and/or reconditioning is allowed only for establishments authorized to conduct post-mortem examination program

  • parts salvaging (refer to section 6.1.2 Salvaging of this document for more details)
  • trimming (offline or online)

    Note: when the licence holder performs offline trimming (for example, if the defect is too extensive for online trimming at normal line speed or if the trimming exceeds the trimmer's capacity), they must identify and analyze hazards, and implement effective control measures for this process step. The licence holder should ensure, but not limited to:

    • trimming is performed hygienically (considering handling, delay before trimming, and return to the line, as well as the management of a higher number of carcasses to be trimmed)
    • contamination is prevented (avoid contact between contaminated carcasses)
    • facilities and equipment are designed and maintained to prevent contamination

6.1.1 Poultry online and offline reprocessing and reconditioning

Refer to the Poultry off-line and on-line reprocessing and reconditioning procedures for general criteria, validation and post validation procedures for online and offline reprocessing/reconditioning.

Refer to the section 11 of Poultry establishment construction and equipment for details on offline reprocessing/reconditioning stations, including the delay to reprocess/recondition the carcasses.

CFIA inspection activities in relation to reprocessing/reconditioning are as follows:

  • Performing preventive control inspection (PCI) tasks

    Refer to section Verifying licence holder's compliance of this document for guidance on the tasks to be used to verify the licence holder's written preventive control plan (PCP), its implementation and the validation and revalidation documents.

    Note: the implementation of the online or offline reconditioning/reprocessing by the licence holder may require the CFIA inspector to expand the scope and perform more than 1 PCI task. The CFIA staff may use the offline and online reprocessing and reconditioning checklists as a tool to identify the tasks to be performed. These checklists are not intended to replace PCI tasks or inspection reports; the inspection tasks must be recorded in Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP). The completed checklists should be attached to the inspection case in DSDP. The offline and online reprocessing and/or reconditioning checklists and Micro data Analysis spreadsheet are available in the folder Poultry - Checklists and worksheets / Listes de contrôle et feuilles de travail (accessible only on the Government of Canada network – RDIMS 7340922).

  • Organoleptic test

    CFIA inspector will perform correlation or independent standard tests to assess the effectiveness of controls for online and offline reprocessing/reconditioning when performing PCI tasks (planned or "as required" inspections) and at the minimum frequency to meet domestic requirements:

    CFIA may perform additional tests at any time as a further assurance of process control or if they feel that standards are not being met for any reason.

    When performing:

    • a correlation test (this test is preferred over the independent test), examine the same carcasses at the same time as the licence holder's employee performing a monitoring test and verify the licence holder employee's correct interpretation of defects, completion of forms and implementation of corrective actions, if necessary, in addition to verifying if the test failed for any of the defects

      Note: when CDS is the organoleptic test used by the licence holder, the corrective actions for failure of CDS for cavity defects should include review of the online and offline reprocessing/reconditioning processes.

    • an independent test (test conducted without a licence holder's employee), inform the licence holder of any rejected sample, any non-compliance to the process control and ensure the licence holder initiated immediate corrective measures

    To assess the effectiveness of controls for:

    • online reprocessing/reconditioning, perform the CDS test (refer to Post-mortem examination program for more details on CDS tests)
    • offline reprocessing/reconditioning, perform:
      • the CDS test if the reprocessed and reconditioned carcasses are placed on the evisceration line prior to the CDS location or
      • an International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-based test (refer to ISO test described in Poultry offline and online reprocessing and reconditioning procedures)

        Note: only the cavity defects of CDS are used to verify compliance with the reprocessing/reconditioning requirements.

    The appropriate implementation verification task or sub-element task must be added to the scope of the PCI case when a non-compliance is observed, for example when there are 3 consecutive rejected corrective measure(s) evaluation tests for the CDS test. Refer to section 6.1.1.2 Verifying licence holder's compliance of this document for more details when a potential non-compliance is observed.

    CFIA will maintain separate log of the independent/correlation organoleptic tests from the licence holder. This is the preferred option compared with recording CFIA test results on the licence holder's records in a way that CFIA tests can be distinguished from tests conducted by the licence holder's process control monitor. This will help the CFIA meet the record retention requirements and demonstrate CFIA testing and results to internal and external auditors. The forms are available in Poultry Inspection and Examination Data Collection Forms 2020 (accessible only on the Government of Canada network – RDIMS 3658610).

    The organoleptic tests are to be recorded on:

    • Carcass Dressing Standards Defects log
    • Defects Log: Off-Line Reprocessing/Reconditioning for Poultry

    Retain the completed records for 10 years from the date the records were generated.

6.1.2 Salvaging

Refer to the following references for more details on salvaging:

To verify the licence holder's compliance with regulatory requirements for salvaging, salvaging stations and the use of antimicrobial interventions, refer to section Verifying licence holder's compliance of this document for guidance on the task to be used.

6.1.3 Partial dressing of poultry carcasses and poultry feet harvesting

Licence holder may choose to partially dress a carcass (head and/or feet-on carcasses) or to harvest poultry feet/paws.

Refer to the Procedures for preparation of feet or paws (poultry), head and feet-on carcasses (poultry), head-on (rabbits) for edible purposes for general criteria and validation procedures for poultry feet/paws and for poultry carcass with head and feet-on.

Refer to the section 8 of Poultry establishment construction and equipment for details on facilities for the harvest and processing of poultry feet.

CFIA inspection activities in relation to the processing of head and feet-on poultry and poultry feet/paws harvesting are as follows:

6.2 Rabbit

6.2.1 Salvaging

In rabbit slaughter establishment, the licence holder may choose to handle carcasses accidentally contaminated with gastro-intestinal contents and carcasses with localized pathologies using:

  • salvaging
  • trimming

Refer to section 6.1.2 Salvaging of this document for more details on part salvaging.

Refer to section 6.1.2.1 Additional information about contamination control measures of the Operational guideline: Poultry and rabbit traditional post-mortem inspection for more details on the prevention of carcass contamination during the skinning process (pelt removal).

6.2.2 Partial dressing of rabbit carcasses

The licence holder who chooses to prepare rabbits with head-on must identify and analyze hazards and implement effective control measures for this product. For example, the licence holder must ensure that the head, and the oral and nasal cavities, are not contaminated. Refer to section 6.0 Operational guideline of this document for more details on the evidence showing a control measure is effective.

Refer to the Procedures for preparation of feet or paws (poultry), head and feet-on carcasses (poultry), head-on (rabbits) for edible purposes and to the Dressing procedures and preparation of edible parts for more details on the preparation of rabbits with head-on.

To verify the licence holder's compliance with regulatory requirements for the preparation of rabbits with head-on, refer to section Verifying licence holder's compliance of this document for guidance on the task to be used.

For inquiries related to this Operational Guidance Document, please follow established communication channels, including submitting an electronic Request for Action Form (e-RAF) (accessible only on the Government of Canada network)

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