Abattoir processing (FOI)

​Request

This relates specifically to the Government of Jersey abattoir facilities:

A

Please disclose physical size or weight limit criteria for cattle or pigs being taken for slaughter at Jersey abattoir.

Do any checks take place offsite eg on farm for animals that may be particularly large?

If offsite screening has taken place what number of animals were rejected at this stage and for what reasons (by broad category)

B

Since 1 Jan 2019 how many cattle and pigs (not combined) have been processed through the plant?

C

Since 1 Jan 2019 how many broken down by pig or cattle have been condemned in totality (whole carcass)?

D

Since 1 Jan 2019 how many broken down by pig or cattle have been condemned partially eg by forequarter / hindquarter or other subdivision of a whole carcass.

E

Since 1 Jan 2019 how many animals broken down by pig or cattle have had parts removed due to animal size or weight restrictions at the abattoir ie where the animal does not have a public health consideration and it related to physical constraints at the facility.

F

Since 1 Jan 2019 how many animals have any portion or entire carcass rejected due to damage from or presence of foreign bodies in tissues such as wire, nails, screws etc.

Response

A

The following table shows the size and weight limits for animals being processed through the Abattoir.

The abattoir team carry out offsite inspections, as required, on any animals that are suspected to exceed the maximum sizes.

The team also carry out animal size checks on the day of process.

The following table shows the number of animals that were rejected due to size restrictions following offsite visits since 1 January 2019.

B

The number of cattle and pigs processed though the abattoir is shown below.

C

Details of condemned animals are shown below.

D and F

The post mortem (‘PM’) details are not recorded electronically, only hand written notes are maintained by the meat inspector. Any significant feedback following the PM is provided directly to the producer by telephone.

We believe that to extract this data from the handwritten records would push this response over the 12.5 hours allowed under the Freedom of Information Law to respond. Therefore, this part of your request will not be processed further.

A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

E

A review of the abattoir process was carried out in 2019 which determined that the facility could not process any animals larger than those specified in response to question A.

Since completion of this review, no animals have been accepted by the abattoir that are larger than maximum size agreed.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.