December 31, 2012
EU animal welfare regulation to start January 1, 2013
Starting January 1, 2013, Council Regulation No. 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing shall apply and will require food business operators to put in place appropriate monitoring procedures in slaughterhouses.
According to Article 16 of the Regulation, operators will have to carry out regular checks to ensure that animals do not present any signs of consciousness or sensibility in the period between the end of the stunning process and death. Article five also requires operators, when animals are slaughtered without stunning, to carry out systematic checks to ensure that animals do not present any signs of consciousness or sensibility before being released from restraint and do not present any sign of life before undergoing dressing or scalding.
According to Article 16, a monitoring procedure shall include indicators designed to detect signs of unconsciousness and consciousness or sensibility in the animals; or indicators designed to detect the absence of signs of life in the animals slaughtered without stunning. It should also include criteria for determining whether the results shown by the indicators previously mentioned are satisfactory; the circumstances and/or the time when the monitoring must take place; and the number of animals in each sample to be checked during the monitoring.
EFSA is organising a meeting on January 30, 2013 in Parma (Italy) to inform participants on the EFSA on-going mandate on the use of welfare indicators and sampling protocols to assess monitoring procedures during slaughter of the main commercial animal species.
The EFSA will present the mandate from the European Commission, explain the approach that EFSA will use in order to address the terms of reference, together with future follow up, such as a possible public consultation on the draft opinion. Representatives from food business operators involved in the field of slaughter, including animal welfare officers and auditing companies are invited.
