(a) Differentiate between a service abattoir and a commercial abattoir. Write down the general principles for efficient abattoir…

(a) Service abattoir versus commercial abattoir, and principles of efficient abattoir management in India (20 marks)

Difference:

• Ownership and purpose: a service abattoir is usually owned by a municipality or local body and only provides slaughter facilities, for a fee, to butchers and meat traders; a commercial abattoir is owned by a private or corporate enterprise that buys the animals and slaughters, processes and sells the meat and by-products.
• Ownership of animals and meat: in the service abattoir the butcher owns the animal and the meat and the abattoir earns only a service charge; in the commercial abattoir the abattoir owns both.
• Scale and technology: the service abattoir is small and often old, serving the local market; the commercial abattoir is larger, mechanised, with chillers, a by-product plant and an effluent treatment plant, and often serves distant markets and exports.
• By-products: usually poorly used in the service abattoir; fully used in the commercial one.

Principles of efficient management in Indian conditions:

1. Site and layout: an approved site away from habitation, with potable water, drainage, an approach road and a downwind position; a one-way flow of animals and meat, with clean and dirty areas separated.
2. Compliance: licence under FSSAI regulations, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, and pollution-control norms.
3. Humane and hygienic operation: lairage with rest and water, ante-mortem inspection by a veterinarian, stunning, proper bleeding, dressing without gut contamination, and post-mortem inspection with condemnation of unfit material.
4. Cooling and cold chain: chilling of carcasses to about 0 to 4 °C soon after dressing.
5. By-product and waste use: hides, blood, bones, fat and offal used through edible and inedible rendering, and effluent treated before disposal.
6. Staff and management: trained, medically checked workers with personal hygiene, a HACCP and GMP system, records for traceability, adequate capacity utilisation and modernisation.

(b) Production and handling of hygienic meat from farm to fork (15 marks)

Farm:

• Keep animals healthy through housing, balanced feed, vaccination, deworming and biosecurity, and use only approved drugs with the withdrawal period observed, to avoid residues.
• Keep records of treatment and movement.
• Transport humanely in suitable vehicles at proper density, without overcrowding or injury.

Slaughter:

• Rest the animals with water and withhold feed for about 12 hours, and inspect them before slaughter, rejecting sick animals.
• Stun, bleed completely, and skin and eviscerate quickly without rupturing the gut; use potable water and sterilise knives at about 82 °C.
• Post-mortem inspection of head, viscera and carcass by a veterinarian, with stamping of fit meat and condemnation of the rest.

Post-slaughter:

• Chill carcasses promptly to 0 to 4 °C, and hold and transport chilled or frozen meat at 0 to 4 °C or at -18 °C in refrigerated vehicles, without a break in the cold chain.
• Cut and process in clean rooms, apply GMP and HACCP, separate raw and cooked products, and keep clean packaging, labelling and traceability.

Retail and consumer:

• Keep meat in clean, cold display, use separate boards, and keep hands and equipment clean.
• Cook to a core temperature of at least 70 °C and refrigerate leftovers.

Personnel at all stages need training, health checks and hygiene, and the whole chain works under FSSAI regulation.

(c) Preservation of shell eggs and of broken-out (liquid) eggs (15 marks)

Only clean, fresh, uncracked eggs are worth preserving.

Shell eggs:

• Refrigeration at 0 to 4 °C with about 85 to 90% relative humidity, the standard method, giving weeks to months of storage.
• Oiling with a thin coat of edible mineral oil, which seals the pores and reduces loss of moisture and carbon dioxide.
• Immersion in lime water (about 3% calcium hydroxide) or in water glass (sodium silicate, 1 part in about 10 parts of boiled water), which blocks the pores.
• Thermostabilisation, dipping in hot water at about 96 to 100 °C for a few seconds, or in hot oil, to form a surface seal; in-shell pasteurisation at about 57 °C for a long hold is a variant.
• Storage in a carbon dioxide-enriched atmosphere, or packing in dry ash, sand or bran, as traditional methods.

Liquid eggs:

• Break, filter and pasteurise: whole egg at about 60 to 61 °C for 3.5 to 4 minutes, yolk at about 61 °C, and white at about 55 to 56 °C with acidification, to destroy Salmonella; then chill to 4 °C.
• Freezing at about -18 °C or below; sugar or salt (about 10%) is added to yolk to prevent gelation.
• Drying by spray or pan drying, after removing glucose from the white (by yeast or glucose oxidase) to prevent browning.