The Value of Current Ante Mortem Meat Inspection and Food Chain Information of Dairy Cows in Relation to Post Mortem Findings and the Protection of Public Health: A Case for a More Risk-Based Meat Inspection.

Pieter Jacobs, Boyd Berends*, Len Lipman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In this study, the contribution of the ante mortem (AM) inspection and the food chain information (FCI) to ensuring meat safety and public health was investigated, by evaluating the slaughterhouse findings of 223,600 slaughtered dairy cows in the Netherlands. The outcome of this study was that the ante mortem (AM) and post mortem (PM) inspections have a substantial overlap, and that with regard to food safety and public health in over 99% of cases the PM could even be omitted on the basis of the AM. In this study, the data provided by the dairy farmers on the current FCI forms contributed little to nothing with regard to the outcomes of AM and PM inspection. It is concluded that current meat inspection procedures need an update and a more risk-based approach needs to be adopted. Regarding this, the AM inspection of dairy cattle should remain, because it plays an important role in ensuring food safety (e.g., by preventing contamination of the slaughter line by excessively dirty animals, or animals with abscesses), monitoring animal welfare and in detecting some important notifiable diseases. The PM inspection, however, could in many cases be omitted, provided there is a strict AM inspection complemented by a vastly improved (automated) way of obtaining reliable FCI.

Original languageEnglish
Article number616
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalFoods
Volume12
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The project received no external funding.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

  • legislation
  • meat inspection
  • meat safety
  • official control
  • risk-based
  • veterinarian

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