Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Animal receiving
Animal ID
(Including suspect holding pens,
ante-mortem inspection, etc.)
Holding
Stunning/shackling
Bunging
Sticking/bleeding
Head dropping
Scalding
Head removal*
Dehairing
Midline and brisket
opening
Gambrelling
Pull leaf fat/
expose kidney
Singeing/
polishing/shaving
(Including toenail removal)
Final trim
Pre-evisceration
wash
Grade stand
Final wash
Chilling
Figure 3.6
Pork slaughter flow chart (skin on carcase). Asterisk denotes two options for processing carcases: skin on or skinned.
the tunnel is used to flush the pig carcases during the
dehairing process. Before entry into the tunnel, the car-
case should hang for 3 minutes and then lie on its side
for 2 minutes. The pig carcases are then transported to
the tunnel on a rising rail so that the head is lower than
the other parts of the body during the whole scalding
process, which lasts 6 minutes. Trimming and singeing
take place afterwards. Vertical scalding is claimed to
greatly improve the bacteriological standard of the pig
meat, produce bacteria-free lungs and reduce muscular
degeneration. This reduced incidence of PSE (pale,
soft, exudative muscle) is said to be due to the fact that
vertical scalding does not produce a rise in body tem-
perature to above 41°C as in normal scalding opera-
tions. Dehairing is also said to be better with this
method, and operating costs are also claimed to be
reduced (Fig. 3.7).
Screening must be provided to control the water spray
and detritus generated by this process.
Refrigeration accommodation
EU Regulation No. 853/2004, Annex III, Chapter VII,
requires the operator to ensure that, unless other specific
provisions provide otherwise, post-mortem inspection
must be followed immediately by chilling in the slaugh-
terhouse to ensure a temperature throughout the meat of
not more than 3°C for offal and 7°C for other meat along
a chilling curve that ensures a continuous decrease of
temperature. Importantly, the temperature decrease
having been attained, it must be maintained and ventila-
tion must be sufficient to prevent condensation on the
surface of the meat.
In order to achieve these legal requirements, and those
of good practice, all but the smallest slaughterhouse will
require two chills for carcases. This is necessary to avoid
hot carcases from the slaughterhall being mixed with
chilled meat with a resultant increase in temperature of
the surface of the chilled carcase and condensation. The
number and size of the chills must be such as to match
the throughput of the facility, the species to be slaugh-
tered, whether beef carcases are to be suspended by the
Achilles tendon or aitch bone and the carcase matura-
tion regime to be implemented. Consideration should
Singeing and scraping
Immediately after mechanical dehairing, the pig carcase
may pass through a machine containing rubber whip-
like fingers which remove any loose hair before entering
an oil- or gas-powered singer typically at 800-900°C for
9-12 seconds. This chars the outer epidermis black,
which is then removed by passing the carcase through a
series of stainless steel scrapers and nylon brushes.
