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FSSAI conducting audit of slaughter houses for safe meat; report in March
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Saturday, 19 January, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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FSSAI has been conducting food safety audit of 40 municipal slaughter houses all over India under the “Clean and Safe Meat Campaign.” The campaign was launched recently for ensuring safe meat availability to consumers.
The audit is expected to be completed by February and its report is likely to come by March this year, according to a senior official privy to the development.
Earlier, FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) had issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) outlining the requirements for conducting audits of slaughter houses after its 23rd CAC (Central Advisory Committee) meeting held on September 7, 2018.
In this regard, states and Union territories across the country were asked to identify the municipal slaughter houses for conducting the audits. However, only 10 states or Union territories - Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh shared details on the subject.
While rest of the states did not respond, FSSAI states that in the case of other states which did not share the details, it has been decided that the selected audit agency may be asked to coordinate with the state authorities to identify municipal slaughter houses and conduct the audit.
“The states are requested to co-operate with the selected audit agency for conducting these audits successfully. The states may share the details with the agency under intimation to FSSAI,” says a statement by FSSAI.
According to FSSAI, the audit was being done to bring back trust and surety among consumers with respect to the meat. Further FSSAI had last year organised a meeting of important stakeholders in Delhi, to discuss all aspects that affect the quality and safety of meat and meat products either in direct or indirect way.
Representatives from Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DADF), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), poultry meat industry (Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd and Venky’s Pvt. Ltd), animal meat industry (AOV Agro Foods Pvt. Ltd and Allana Sons Ltd), meat retail sectors (Grofers and Licious) and animal feed companies (Godrej Agrovet Ltd and Suguna Poultry Farm Ltd) were present in the meeting.
In this meeting, issues related to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) in slaughter and meat processing units, training of meat handlers, eligibility of food business operators handling meat and meat products for obtaining FSSAI licence, role of animal feed in quality of meat and various existing and upcoming schemes, government schemes for upgradation of meat industry, especially, the unorganised sector were highlighted.
In the meeting, it was decided that food safety audit of meat units/ municipal slaughter houses will be conducted in coming three months in 40 cities expanded by third-party auditing agency. A mandatory food safety audit of the supply chain for e-commerce retail entities involved in retail of meat or meat products will also be conducted among others.
It is pertinent to mention here that FSSAI has notified Food Safety and Standards (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations, 2018, with effect from August 28, 2018, and have 22 recognised food safety auditing agencies as on date under various scopes of auditing. Out of these, 14 agencies are recognised for the scope of auditing slaughter houses.
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