Slaughterhouses and Meat Inspection

Performance Pledge

Slaughterhouses

The territory's fresh meat (beef, pork and mutton) supply comes from three licensed slaughterhouses in the New Territories, namely the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse, the Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse and the Cheung Chau Slaughterhouse, with a total daily throughput of about 5,600 pigs, 130 cattle and a few goats. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is responsible for the monitoring of slaughterhouses to ensure that their operations meet the required hygiene and environmental standards and that only meat fit for human consumption is released for sale in the market. Qualified health inspectors are stationed at the slaughterhouses to perform meat inspection and other duties.

Slaughtering processes

The process of slaughtering and dressing of food animals generally involves:

For pigs

Electrical stunning, bleeding, rinsing, scalding, de-hairing, evisceration, inspection and marking.

For cattle

Stunning by captive-bolt pistol, bleeding, removal of head, feet and hide, evisceration, inspection and marking.

For goats

Stunning by captive-bolt pistol, bleeding, scalding, de-hairing, evisceration, inspection and marking.

Management & Hygiene of Slaughterhouses

While private companies manage and operate the slaughterhouses, the Department is responsible for the supervision, inspection and enforcement of meat hygiene therein. Our aim is to safeguard public health through fair, consistent and effective enforcement of hygiene and inspection regulations, namely the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132, the Slaughterhouses Regulation and the Food Business Regulation.

We station qualified and specialised staff in the licensed slaughterhouses so as to ensure good hygiene practices. In addition, we liaise closely with overseas controlling authorities and keep in view the development of the legislation, policy, strategies and practices about the management and hygiene of slaughterhouses in other countries so as to improve the quality of our services.

Click the topics below if you wish to learn more about the management and hygiene of slaughterhouses

Food Safety / Inspection, AMI (American Meat Institute)

Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), United States of America

Foodlaw - Reading Department of Food Bioscience, The University of Reading, United Kingdom

Centralized slaughter facilities for poultry

It was customary for local people to select and purchase live birds at retail outlets such as fresh provision shops and market stalls. After purchase, the stall/shop operators concerned would arrange for the slaughtering and dressing of these birds in the same premises before delivering them to the customers.

There was a major outbreak of avian flu in late 1997 in Hong Kong. In order to prevent the spread of avian flu H5N1 virus to the human population, the Government since early 1998 has adopted a separation policy for live poultry. Under this policy, the slaughtering of live water birds such as ducks and geese must be done in centralized facility and separated from that of other land-based poultry such as chickens and pigeons. As from 2002, dressed water birds must also be pre-packaged individually when sold at retail outlets.

In the longer term, the Government is considering to build a centralized poultry slaughtering and processing plant for chickens and some other land-based poultry. The Department has imposed special conditions on live poultry retailers with a view to raising hygiene standards in retail outlets in public markets/fresh provision shops to minimize the risk of a further outbreak of avian flu in the poultry population.

Meat inspection (ante-mortem inspection and post-mortem inspection inclusive)

All animals intended for human consumption and admitted to the licensed slaughterhouses for slaughtering and dressing are subject to both ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections. Before food animals are slaughtered, they are kept in the waiting lairages for ante-mortem inspection by health inspectors.

Ante-mortem inspections aim to screen out animals with manifest lesions or disease conditions for isolation slaughter. This will prevent, as far as possible, the spread of diseases among the live animals awaiting slaughter and avoid the infections carried by the sick animals from getting into the meat production process to contaminate the slaughter hall, plant, equipment, personnel, animal carcasses and parts.

Post-mortem inspections are also conducted by health inspectors at the slaughter halls or isolation slaughter rooms as soon as the food animals are slaughtered and dressed. Post-mortem inspections include:

1. visual inspection of the animal carcass and offal;
2. examination of lymph nodes, in particular the submaxillary and bronchial, by multiple incisions along their main axis;
3. palpation of the organs, in particular the lungs, the liver, the spleen, the uterus, the udder, and in cattle, also the tongue;
4. investigation for abnormalities in consistency, colour and smell;
5. examination for parasitic infections by multiple incisions of the parasites' predilection sites, such as the internal and external masseters for cysticercosis in pigs, the gastric surface of the liver for fascioliasis in cattle and goats; and
6. whenever necessary, taking pork samples for microscopic examination of trichinosis and fatty tissue samples for boiling test of jaundice.

Conditions warranting condemnation of the carcasses, offal and blood

Only animal carcasses and offal which have passed the meat inspections can be marked with a "Government Inspected" stamp and released for sale in the market. If, upon inspection of any carcass and related offal, the inspector is satisfied that the animal was suffering from any disease or condition rendering the carcass or the affected parts unfit for human consumption, he/she shall condemn the animal carcass or the affected parts, as the case may be, and order for their destruction.

The carcass, offal and blood of a food animal will be totally condemned if it exhibits any of the following diseases or conditions:

Other duties of health inspectors

Health inspectors working in the licensed slaughterhouses, apart from meat inspection duties, have to monitor/control the slaughtering operations with proper regard to:

1. the prevention of cruelty to animals;
2. the method of slaughtering and meat hygiene;
3. the general cleanliness and hygiene of the premises, the slaughtering equipment, and the meat delivery vehicles; and
4. disposal of condemned meat and offal;

They must make regular inspections of all parts of the licensed slaughterhouses, including the meat delivery vehicles, and enforce the relevant legislation such as the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, the Food Business Regulation, the Slaughterhouses Regulation; and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Ordinance.