China has launched a six-month special rectification campaign from June to December on livestock and poultry slaughtering to ensure meat safety for consumers.

 

Six central government agencies are involved in the campaign, including the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and the State Food and Drug Administration.

 

The campaign is focused on cracking down upon illegal transaction of diseased or dead livestock and poultry, illegal slaughtering, feeding pigs with banned substances such as clenobuterol hydrochloride, and sale of pigs injected with water. Efforts will be made to strengthen inspection on the producing place of live poultry, pigs, cattle and sheep, supervision on breeding farms and households, investigation on the illegal action of slaughtering, selling and transporting livestock and poultry without quarantine certificate or failing to meet quarantine requirements, or dead livestock and poultry.

 

Inspectors will publicise the harms brought about by using banned substances, help breeding farms raise their awareness of quality and safety, and stringently combat the behaviors of using or instigating others to use banned substances. The illegal behaviors of injecting livestock with water or other substances will be seriously investigated and handled, and designated slaughterhouses or abattoirs that are found to have such illegal operations should be ordered to suspend business and make rectifications immediately, with their qualification revoked when the circumstances are serious.

 

Meanwhile, the campaign also targets the intensified rectification on designated slaughterhouses, aiming to knock out those failing to satisfy the requirements for market access. The rectification on meat product quality will cover links including slaughtering, processing, circulation and catering, improving the accountability system for slaughterhouses and specifying responsibilities on food safety to ensure quality and safety of meat products leaving the factory gate.

 

Other measures to be taken include strengthening supervision of the raw meat purchasing by meat product producers, cracking down on use of unqualified raw meat, carrying out special surveillance on livestock and poultry, and their products purchased by catering businesses, and stringently investigating and handling illegal actions such as purchasing or using meat from livestock and poultry that are slaughtered without inspection, died of illness or died due to unidentified causes.