Processing standards and application

Traceability of the organic product is extremely important processors must have a system in place which enables traceability from the retail pack purchased by the customer back to the farm batch. This applies to any slaughterhouse, butcher or retail packer, whatever the size of the organisation. Traceability is a core component of organic processing, and is stringently audited to ensure consumer confidence in the final product. 

On delivery to the slaughterhouse the documentation that arrives with the animals must be verified, and the organic licensee checked to prove the validity of the licence number. Once data checks are completed, the farmer s name, address and licence number are transferred onto a working document which starts the traceability system. The paperwork must then be forwarded to the lairage. At Lloyd Maunder, for example, this traceability sheet is referred to as the passport system . 

After the slaughter, dressing and evisceration process, the carcasses are then inspected by the Meat Hygiene Service, to ensure the meat and offal is fit for human consumption in accordance with the Fresh Meat - Hygiene and Inspection - Regulations 1995 (as amended). 

On receipt of the organic carcasses, all the documentation which arrives with the product must be checked. In particular the carcasses must have been stamped with their organic symbol, and have a reference number attached for traceability to continue through the primal cutting process. 

The temperature of the cutting room should be no more than 12°C, and once the carcasses have entered the boning room they should be butchered as quickly as possible, to provide optimum vacuum-packed life. Once all the carcasses with the same reference number have been primal cut, they then need to be vacuum-packed and labelled. This needs to be completed before the carcasses with the next reference number are brought into the cutting room to be primal cut, to reduce the chance of batch mixing. 

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