New Requirement For Food Chain Information For Calves

Main Category: Veterinary
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 10 Jan 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced the implementation of new regulations that require slaughterhouses to ask for information about calves received for slaughter.

The new legal requirement for Food Chain Information (FCI) applies to calves, which are defined as animals less than eight months of age. FCI includes information about the farm from which the calves came, their history of rearing and their health, including details of medicines they may have received.

The responsibility for obtaining the FCI will be with slaughterhouse operators. The FSA has worked closely with them and other stakeholders to develop guidance, which can be found at the link below, and to make them aware of the new requirements for calves, which were implemented on 1 January 2009. This follows a similar process that came into force at the beginning of 2008 where operators were required to provide FCI for pigs.

Kenneth Clarke, FSA Veterinary Adviser, said: 'Food chain information is an important element of the farm-to-fork approach to food safety and can contribute to the application of risk-based inspection systems at slaughterhouses. We wish to encourage slaughterhouse operators to use the guidance we have published to develop FCI systems that best suit their businesses. We have a bigger task ahead to implement FCI for all cattle and sheep in 2010, and will continue to work with industry to produce useful and practical solutions.'

Food Standards Agency