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Safety comes first - high sanitary standards concerning production of European pork, beef and their products.

Tuesday 11 October 2016, 6:41PM

By Impact PR

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Management of quality and safety of pork, beef and their products is the most important condition for elimination of hazards within the production chain. It can be met by the EU meat industry thanks to implementation of mandatory and non-mandatory quality management systems combined with modern production process management systems. Ensuring high quality food to consumers together with guaranteed safety allows the EU producers in the meat industry to strengthen their position on the global markets.

Safety of pork, beef and their products is guaranteed not only by good quality of the raw material and correctly conducted production process, but most importantly by high hygiene standard in the whole production chain.  To ensure high level of protection of public health and to standardise interpretation of microbiological results of the tested food, the Hygiene Package  has been introduced in the countries of the Community together with the regulation on agreed microbiological safety criteria. How, in fact, does putting law into practice look like?

First and foremost, the microbiological criteria are complied with in EU meat processing plants, not only during the production process, but also during introduction of food products for sale. Precise definition of microbiological requirements for pork, beef and their products makes it possible for EU production plants to ensure food safety and allows to assess whether individual stages of production and distribution are carried out correctly. Moreover, supervising bodies use those microbiological requirements for assessment of hygienic conditions in production plants. Implementation of the EU hygiene package led to a situation in which the European Union has one of the most restrictive standards concerning production of beef, pork and their products in the world.

Those standards include quality and safety management systems introduced by the EU producers of pork, beef and their products. They include the following: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Hygienic Practice (GHP) and Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). The companies within the EU meat industry are able to ensure safety of food they produce by complying with the rules set out in those systems and with the rules which stem from their own in-house control measures. It guarantees that fully safe pork and beef products reach consumers' tables.

Sanitary norms are extremely important determinants in the meat trade.  A great part of the worldwide sale involves fresh or refrigerated pork and beef. Because of that, regular testing of food for presence of pathogenic micro-organisms is the priority. For that purpose, rigorous controls are carried out on a regular basis in EU meat plants which deal with processing of meat, including the meat destined for exports. They guarantee that EU pork, beef and their products are safe.

On the other hand, to eliminate hazards connected with consumption of potentially unsafe food, the European Union has introduced the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).  Its aim is to protect consumers from the risk of developing any disease. Moreover, it effectively enables elimination of food of improper quality.

Quality of food, including extent of its contamination with pathogenic micro-organisms, has a significant influence of people's lives.  In order to ensure safety of EU pork, beef and their products, many unique systems have been created which take into account the specifics of the meat industry. Thanks to them the meat is produced in a way, which guarantees its high quality, including its natural softness, tenderness and high juiciness, and the same time keeps it safe.
 

For more information visit http://www.meatfromerope.eu