Food Standards Agency

Vision 

Safe meat from healthy well cared for animals.

Purpose

To deliver official controls in approved meat premises to protect public health, animal health and animal welfare. 

Operational presence in all slaughterhouses and game handling establishments, and risk based audit of all slaughterhouses, cutting plants, and game handling establishments. 

Functions at Slaughterhouse Level

• Meat production in accordance with legislation.
• Enforcement of animal welfare regulations applicable at slaughterhouses.
• Notifiable disease controls with AI, BTV and FMD.
• TSE/BSE testing requirements. 

Function Outside Slaughterhouses

• Dairy hygiene inspections.
• Shellfish controls (scotland).
• Wine standards inspections.

36 lead vets, 365 official vets (OVs) and 1200 meat hygiene inspectors (MHIs). 

Responsibilities-> carry out official controls in line with domestic and European hygiene and Welfare regulations. 

• 2.3 million cows, 14 million sheep, 8.3 million pigs & 852 million chickens slaughtered each year. All slaughtered in approved premises with FSA attendance. 
• 286 red meat slaughterhouses, 90 poultry meat slaughterhouses & 773 cutting plants. 
• FSA team leader in plant, carries out antemortem duties personally, and supervises or carries out the post mortem meat inspection. 
• FSA checks that the food business operator applies the procedures continuously and properly. E.g. spinal cord being removed by an FBO operative or hygenic processes. 
• MHI or OV inspects all carcasses and offals in accordance with the regulations. 
• MHI or OV applies the health mark following satisfactory investigation and negative tests results e.g. TSE/trichinella tested animals. 
• Veterinary surveillance at abattoir level for notifiable/zoonotic disease.
• TB usually picked up PM, animal health sends animals from restricted premises usually reactors, inconclusive reactors or direct contacts. Slaughterhouse case= report to animal health.
• TSE, BSE and scrapie testing suspect at ante-mortem= report to Animal health. Routine sampling of all cattle over 72 months for BSE and some abattoirs sampling of adult sheep (VLA sets %). 
• Role in notifiable disease- identification of diseases of AM inspection and sometimes PM. Halts all movement in and out of the premises and inform AHVLA and follow instructions. Restriction zones, protection zones and surveillance zones. Approval (rz) and licensing (pz, sz) of plants to operate during outbreak. Slaughter must occur within 24 hours of arrival. Animals from protection/surveillance zones must be kept separate from the other meat. C & D must take place on premises immediately after unloading.