- Live animal identification has to be retained on the carcass until it is dispatched.
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A slaughter programme has to be compiled giving details of stock, their class, and identification, name and address of owner, lot, pen and slaughter sequence, numbers, etc., for the day's kill, or batches within this.
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Copies of these are to be made available to appropriate persons including the meat inspection staff.
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It is important to have a reliable system of substituting dead for "live" identifications so that accurate details of producer, ownership, carcass weight, grade classification and disease information are maintained.
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Carcass meat are identified by different ways, clip or tie-on labels (paper or plastic) stick on tickets, plastic strands, marking inks, knife marks in superficial muscles, etc.
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Unless offal is pooled it too will require individual identification.
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A recent innovation is an instrument, which injects a small plastic or cellulose fastener holding a paper or plastic label into the meat.
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A system is being developed in Australia, which consists of gelatine strips preprinted with appropriate details and stuck on the carcass fat.
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This form of identification is said to be edible, waterproof, non-smearing non-dissolving and abrasion-resistant.
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If details can be added after the strips are applied, this could be a useful system of carcass identification.
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Metal and hard rubber stamps with marking ink, are in common use for carcass identification and roller script for indicating grades.
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The inks should be applied to a relatively dry meat surface to pressure legibility and for event carcass disfiguration.
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Other forms of carcass meat identification include marking pencils and probel measurements in pigs.
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Vegetable dye is used, since it is
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In the Kosher method of identification a wire is pushed through the legs of sheep of beef flank, a pair of pliers imprinting the joining lead seal with letter and numerals.
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Practically all the current forms of meat identification have drawbacks from the standpoint of hygiene, legibility or practicability. For example, the commonly used labels with copper-plated clips can cause discoloration of the surrounding meat due to corrosion, necessitating trimming.
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A good system of carcass meat identification must be clearly legible easily applied, cheap, non-toxic, non-corrosive and suitable for use with modern data retrieval systems.
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The meat inspector will adopt one or more of the above forms of marking meat "retained" "detained" and "condemned" in addition to appropriate labels indicating any specific lesions.
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