Abattoir Practices and Animal Products Technology

1. Jewish method

JEWISH METHOD

• The Jewish method of slaughter is controlled by the Jewish Board of Schechita and Jewish slaughter man have to undergo several years of training before being licensed by the Rabbinical Commission.
• They must also conform to British law that the slaughterhouse act of 1974 specifies that slaughter by either the Jewish or Muslim method must not inflict unnecessary pain.
• Animals must be slaughtered and dressed according to ritual methods specified in the Talmud, the body of the Jewish law and legend based on the Torah in order for meat to be kosher i.e. right fulfilling the requirements of Jewish law.
• Talmud prescribes that the animal must be alive and healthy at slaughter and must not have suffered any injury.
• Prior stunning is forbidden.
• The act of killing for food is known as Schechita.
• Animals that do not conform to these ideals and any defects at slaughter in the form of faults in schechita or disease lesions discovered in the carcass render the meat terepha, unfit for consumption by Jews.
• Animals that lie quietly and cannot be made to rise must not be slaughtered according to Jewish ritual.
• Schechita is performed by a Shochet who slaughters the fully conscious animals with a single, deliberate, swift action of a razor-sharp knife, roughly twice the width of the animal’s neck and which is devoid of any notch or flaw, and has been examined before the slaughter of each animal.
• All the soft structures anterior to the cervical spine are served, including the carotid arteries and jugular veins.
• It is essential that the neck be fully extended in order to keep the edges of the wound open and thereby prevent any pain.
• The five rules of Jewish ritual slaughter, in their traditional order, are that the neck incision shall be without pause, pressure, stabbing, slanting and tearing.
• The Shochet (cutter) is normally assisted by Shomer (sealer) who is responsible for putting the kosher mark on the brisket and on edible offal.
• Besides performing the act of slaughter, the shochet offers prayers and carries out a post-mortem examination by making an incision posterior to the xiphoid process and inserting the arm to detect any adhesions in the thoracic cavity (searching).
• Full meat inspection may be performed by a shochet or by the government or local authority inspector.
• If the carcass should be held in the chill room for more than 24 hours it must be washed in order to remove blood, further washing and curing (meliha) or broiling being carried out in the home.
• Carcasses found fit for consumption must have the meat porged by removing the large blood vessels in the forequarter prior to retail sale.
• Only forequarters are normally used, since the hind quarters, which are said to contain over 50 blood vessels, can only be porged by highly skilled kosher butchers and are therefore rarely eaten.
• It is claimed that the Jewish method of slaughter does not involve any act of cruelty because the knife is particularly sharp, the cut is made dexterously by a trained person, and the severance of the carotid vessels is followed by a very rapid fall in blood pressure within the cephalic arteries.
• It is therefore contended that the anoxia from the diminished blood supply to the brain tissues brings about almost immediate unconsciousness.
• But the opponents contended that blood via the cerebral artery may still reach the brain of the cattle and prolong the period of consciousness.