Unregulated meat poses risk to international trade

What is the issue here from the Abattoirs Association; is it concerned with loss of through put in their establishments, or are they worried about the health of people eating home kill meat? Is there any evidence of people getting sick or poisoned through eating home kill?

Part of being a livestock farmer is having access to fresh home kill meat, either slaughtering them your self, or cheaply by licenced home kill operators.

Will government regulations mean this will be taken away from us, or increase the cost, due to it having to be processed in licenced abattoirs?

Friends and family on tasting homekill meat, often comment on its taste, tenderness and flavour over supermarket products.

The unregulated meat trade is definitely on the increase, posing a food safety risk to the NZ public and potentially damaging our international trade reputation.   President of the Abattoir Association, Lyndon Everton, firmly believes that the black market meat trade is alive and thriving.  Since amendments to the Animal Product Act came into effect in 1999, the registration of home kill operators has increased from 79 to 384.  “It staggers me the governing authorities allow any meat to be slaughtered outside a purpose built processing facility when the meat industry is worth $6.4 billion in export revenue and 4% of the national GDP.”

 “Home kill operators, licensed or not, do not pay levies, including those for tuberculosis eradication.  We estimate that the home kill and backyard butchers process over half a million sheep, cattle and pigs every year.  In levies alone, this amounts to over $2 million a year being lost,” Everton says. The real issue isn’t whether or not there have been more complaints to NZFSA in regard to home killed meat but that no one actually knows definitively the numbers involved as there is no regulation and no data collected from the home kill industry.

 Everton shares the concern that the Animal Products Act is not being enforced.   Under this Act, home kill is allowed but only for the consumption of the animal’s owner who must have owned the animal for the past 28 days.   “We are well aware that this law is being breached on a daily basis.  A lot of people are breaking the law as they are either ignorant of it, or choose to ignore it, knowing there is no one out there enforcing it.”

 The Abattoirs Association would like to see the Government take action by measuring home kill activity and ensuring all operators are audited for compliance in food safety, humane slaughter practices and traceability.   This is not only for the protection of the NZ consumer, but also for the reputation of our international trade.