Safety in meat and poultry production is of paramount importance. Contaminated meat or poultry products present health hazards to the consumers. Bacteria, viruses and parasites as well as chemical residues present in meat and poultry products present health hazards to consumers. It is important that anyone practicing sheep production to understand application of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) in meat production as well as the chemical residues in meat that are of health significant.
Sheep production
Many farms practice sheep production as an alternative source of income. Farms rear sheep for meat, milk, wool, hide and skin. Sheep reared for other products other than meat finally produce meat as the by-product. According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (2001), Australia leads in sheep meat production. Most sheep reared in the United States of America are primarily for meat production or production of lambs for meat (sheep 201, 2011).
Application of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) in meat and poultry processing plan
During processing of meat and poultry products, contamination by bacteria, viruses and parasites can occur. Contaminated meat and poultry provides an environment for the growth of the contaminating organisms (Northcutt and Russell, 2010). This make such products unfit for human consumption or cause food-borne illnesses to consumers if they consume the contaminated products. In 1959, Pillsbury developed the concept of HACCP when producing microbiologically safe foods for space flights (Northcutt and Russell, 2010; United States Department of Agriculture and Food Safety and Inspection Service, 1999; Keener, 2009; haccpalliance, n.d and Tompkin, 1994).
The National Academy of...
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Meatpacking pertains to the raising, slaughtering, packaging and processing of livestock such as pigs, cows, and chickens. Prior to slaughter, animals are grown and fed. Food-borne illnesses and pathogens have plagued the meatpacking industry since the creation of meatpacking. The government plays a huge role in providing legislation and ensuring the safety of meat products and businesses. Although the government is meant to inspect and guarantee safety, many unlawful practices appear overlooked pertaining to the safety of meat for consumers.
The safety of meat and poultry is a topic that has been debated for a number of years. Contamination is especially a concern when raising cattle and turkey for food. A recent article from DiGregorio (2013) highlights a debate over the safety of ground turkey sold in U.S. supermarkets. According to the Consumer’s Union in the article, a large percentage of ground turkey was found to be contaminated with fecal-associated bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, along with other types of pathogens, such as Salmonella and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (DiGregorio 2013).
However, health concerned organizations want to ban the use of these products due to the increasing fears that they can cause harm to the consumers. For over 50 years, antibiotics have been added to the food of animals such as poultry, cattle and pigs. The main purpose for doing so is to lower the risk of disease in animals. Farm animals are housed together in overcrowded areas, which are very dirty. The hygiene level can get to such a poor state that they are often in contact with their own excreta as well as excreta of the other animals they are housed with and because of tight single air space they share, the likelihood of catching diseases from one another is further increased and very often a whole heard can be infected at one time.
“U.S. Meat Production,” PSR, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington, D.C. 2014. Print. Web 1 Apr. 2014.
In April 2008 the In Vitro Consortium first met at the Norwegian Food Research Institute. The consortium is “an international alliance of environmentally concerned scientists striving to facilitate the establishment of a large scale process industry for the production of muscle tissue for human consumption through concerted R&D efforts and attraction of funding fuels to these efforts.”Meat in both its production and its consumption has a number of destructive effects on not only the environment and humans but also live stock. Some of these effects are antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, meat-borne pathogens (e. coli), and diseases associated with diets rich in animal fats (diabetes). Meat consumption all over the world is increasing making meat a global issue. As a result many researchers have been trying to create meat substitutes to minimize the impact of consumption. Substitutes, to date, have been made from soybeans, peas, or even from animal tissues grown in a culture.
Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene” ( Macintyre, 2009). Factory farmers do not care about the safety of the consumers nor the safety of the chicken, all the industrial farmers have in mind are how fast they can turn a baby chick into a slaughter size chicken and how to make their chicken big and plumped. Factory farming is not only a health hazard to the well-being of the animals, but the environment, and human beings ;thus free range and sustainable farming need to be put into practice.
Recent concerns regarding the risks of Avian flu and other exotic diseases prompted some local poultry farmers to adopt strict biosecurity protocols in order to keep their birds safe. ...
British Charolais Cattle Society. (2012). Charolais. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from British Charolais Cattle Society: http://www.charolais.co.uk/
Since the main goal for these corporations are to maximize their profit, it is in their best interest to come up with the most efficient and productive techniques to accomplish this objective. Many harmful effects are overlooked by corporations and the government in order to increase productivity and keep costs low. The details with the food itself, the animals that are produced, the workers in the assembly lines, and the actual consumers that may lead to numerous harmful effects. The film examines the industrial side of meat production by showing footage inside of the meat processing planets and describes this as ‘inhumane, economically and environmentally unsustainable’. There was a problem with the bacterial cell, e. coli, getting into food by unsanitary practices of the meat processing plants. Often cow and pigs would just stand in their own manure that contained e. coli for days on end and that would have the possibility of getting into the meat that is served to customers. Some food corporations had problems with exploitations of workers that contribute to their product. The film showed that many chicken farmers are treated poorly and dive deeper into debt by producing more and more. Companies will also target illegal foreign workers to make their products in order to cut down on costs as
The public becomes anxious about the food safety for some frequently occurred agriculture products’ safety accidents in recent years. To minimize the hidden danger of
A SWOT analysis of the food control system in Bahrain revealed that certain strengths and weaknesses are inherent in the system. In addition to the weaknesses and the strengths, there are threats that would negatively affect the system if not prevented or brought under control. Nevertheless, the there are opportunities available for responding to the threats, making the Bahrain food control systems more efficient and effective. It is therefore important that some or all of these strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses are reviewed. Conspicuous among the weaknesses is the fact that limited resources are available for the agencies and the personnel employed in the Bahrain food control system. Related to lack of resources is the lack of skills and competencies in applying modern techniques, more so in microbiological and chemical analysis. The second weakness of the Bahrain food control system is that most of the laws and regulations on food safety and control are not based on risk- or science-based analysis. In other words, the laws could be outdated and irrelevant in comparison with the latest mechanisms by which pathogens and other contaminants affect foodstuffs (Nestle, 2007). Furthermore, Bahrain lacks the technical expertise or competent enough personnel who could assess the effectiveness and the applicability of their food control laws.
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)
Sheep were the first animals domesticated for a food source. Domestication exists so that people always have a source of fresh meat and don’t have to wait a few days till they can find game again. (Diamond, 2002)