Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SOR/2018-108)

SUBDIVISION FSlaughtering and Dressing

Marginal note:Requirement before bleeding

141 Before bleeding a food animal, other than a game animal, a licence holder must render it unconscious in a manner that prevents it from regaining consciousness before death or slaughter it by

• (a) delivering a blow to the head with a mechanical device in a manner that causes an immediate loss of consciousness;

• (b) applying an electrical current in a manner that causes an immediate loss of consciousness; or

• (c) exposing it to a gas or a gas mixture in a manner that causes a rapid loss of consciousness.

Marginal note:Requirement after bleeding starts

142 A licence holder must not cut the carcass of a food animal after bleeding has started if it shows signs of sensibility that may indicate a potential return to consciousness.

Marginal note:Requirement before suspending

• 143 (1) A licence holder must not suspend a food animal before it is rendered unconscious or slaughtered in accordance with section 141, before it is ritually slaughtered in accordance with section 144 or before it is humanely killed.

• Marginal note:Exception — certain birds

  (2) Despite subsection (1), a licence holder may suspend a bird, other than an ostrich, rhea or emu, by its legs immediately before it is rendered unconscious or slaughtered in accordance with section 141 or immediately before it is humanely killed.

Marginal note:Ritual slaughter

144 Despite section 141, a licence holder who ritually slaughters a food animal to comply with Judaic or Islamic law must

• (a) restrain the food animal;

• (b) administer one continuous, fluid cut with a knife, without the knife being lifted off the food animal, resulting in the rapid, simultaneous and complete severance of the jugular veins and carotid arteries, in a manner that causes the animal to bleed immediately; and

• (c) rapidly and completely bleed it, to render it unconscious in a manner that prevents it from regaining consciousness before death.

Marginal note:Dressing

• 145 (1) After a food animal is bled, a licence holder must dress the carcass by doing the following:

  • (a) in the case of the carcass of a pig,

    • (i) remove the hair, scurf, toenails and developed mammary glands or remove the skin, head, developed mammary glands and feet at the carpal and tarsal joints, and

    • (ii) eviscerate and split it;

  • (b) in the case of the carcass of a bird,

    • (i) remove the feathers and hair or remove the skin,

    • (ii) remove the head, uropygial gland and feet at the tarsal joints, and

    • (iii) eviscerate it;

  • (c) in the case of the carcass of a goat,

    • (i) remove the hair, head, toenails and developed mammary glands or remove the skin, head, developed mammary glands and feet at the carpal and tarsal joints, and

    • (ii) eviscerate it; and

  • (d) in the case of the carcass of any other food animal,

    • (i) remove the skin, head, developed mammary glands and feet at the carpal and tarsal joints,

    • (ii) eviscerate it, and

    • (iii) split it, except in the case of a sheep, calf or domesticated rabbit.

• Marginal note:Partial dressing

  (2) Despite subsection (1) and at the request of the licence holder, the Minister must authorize the licence holder to partially dress a carcass if

  • (a) the licence holder establishes that there is a market for partially dressed carcasses; and

  • (b) the licence holder’s procedure for partial dressing is such that the carcass is sufficiently dressed to enable a post-mortem examination or inspection.

Marginal note:Blood clots, bone splinters and extraneous matter

146 A licence holder must remove any blood clot, bone splinter and extraneous matter from the carcass of a food animal and the parts of the carcass, and must identify what was removed as inedible.

Marginal note:Processing of blood

147 A licence holder must process a food animal’s blood in the inedible products area described in subsection 58(2) unless the licence holder

• (a) collects it in a manner that prevents contamination;

• (b) protects it against contamination after it is collected; and

• (c) does not defibrinate it by hand.

Marginal note:Identification and correlation

148 A licence holder must identify the blood of a food animal that is collected to be processed as an edible meat product and the parts of the carcass of the food animal in a manner that enables the correlation of the blood and the parts with the carcass from which they were removed until the completion of the post-mortem inspection or examination.

SUBDIVISION GPost-mortem Inspection and Examination

Marginal note:Post-mortem inspection

• 149 (1) A licence holder must, during the course of dressing or partially dressing a carcass, present the carcass, its parts, and any blood of the food animal that is collected to be processed as an edible meat product to a veterinary inspector, or an inspector under the supervision of a veterinary inspector, for a post-mortem inspection.

• Marginal note:Deviations

  (2) A licence holder, other than a licence holder who is authorized to conduct a post-mortem defect management program, must not, before the post-mortem inspection is completed, remove from the carcass any part that shows a deviation from normal appearance unless authorized to do so by a veterinary inspector.

• Marginal note:Deviations — post-mortem defect management program

  (3) In the case of a licence holder who is authorized to conduct a post-mortem defect management program, the licence holder must not, before the post-mortem inspection begins, remove from the carcass any part that shows a deviation from normal appearance unless authorized to do so by a veterinary inspector.

• Marginal note:Exception — post-mortem examination program

  (4) This section does not apply to a licence holder who is authorized to conduct a post-mortem examination program under subsection 160(3).

Marginal note:Post-mortem examination

• 150 (1) During the course of dressing or partially dressing a carcass, a licence holder who is authorized to conduct a post-mortem examination program under subsection 160(3) must, under the supervision of a veterinary inspector, conduct a post-mortem examination of the carcass, its parts and the blood of the food animal that has been collected to be processed as an edible meat product.

• Marginal note:Post-mortem defect management program

  (2) During the course of dressing or partially dressing a carcass, a licence holder who is authorized to conduct a post-mortem defect management program under subsection 160(3) must, under the supervision of a veterinary inspector, do the following:

  • (a) before the post-mortem inspection begins, conduct a post-mortem screening of the carcass, its parts and the blood of the food animal that has been collected to be processed as an edible meat product; and

  • (b) before the post-mortem inspection of the carcass is completed, implement the necessary measures with respect to any defects of the carcass or its parts.

Marginal note:Inspection legend applied before refrigeration

151 In the case of an edible dressed or partially dressed whole carcass or an edible dressed carcass side, other than a carcass or carcass side of a domesticated rabbit or a bird that is not an ostrich, rhea or emu, the inspection legend must be applied after the post-mortem inspection or examination and before refrigeration

• (a) by stamping it directly onto the carcass or carcass side; or

• (b) by applying a label to the carcass or carcass side that is shown prominently and that bears the inspection legend, the date of slaughter of the food animal from which the carcass or carcass side is derived and a code that enables the carcass or carcass side to be correlated with the slaughter of the food animal.

SUBDIVISION HInedible Meat Products

Marginal note:Condemnation

152 If a veterinary inspector, or an inspector under the supervision of a veterinary inspector, determines after a post-mortem inspection that any meat product that would be derived from a carcass, any of its parts or the blood of the food animal could not be identified as edible under section 125 and condemns the carcass, its parts or the blood of the food animal, a licence holder must identify any meat product that is derived from the condemned carcass, parts or blood as inedible.

Marginal note:Identification

153 A licence holder must identify as inedible

• (a) the carcass, any of its parts or the blood of a food animal that is rejected by the licence holder who is authorized to conduct a post-mortem examination program or a post-mortem defect management program under subsection 160(3); and

• (b) the carcass of a food animal that dies other than by slaughter in accordance with these Regulations.

Marginal note:Meat products treated as inedible

• 154 (1) A licence holder may treat as inedible any meat product that

  • (a) does not have its movement restricted by an inspector; or

  • (b) has its movement restricted by an inspector if the licence holder obtains an inspector’s authorization to move the meat product to the inedible products area described in subsection 58(2).

• Marginal note:Identification

  (2) The licence holder must identify as inedible any meat product that the licence holder treats as inedible.

Marginal note:Inedible products area

• 155 (1) When a meat product is condemned or identified as inedible, a licence holder must move it directly to the inedible products area described in subsection 58(2).

• Marginal note:Labelling and disposal

  (2) The licence holder must take one of the following measures in respect of a meat product that is moved to the inedible products area:

  • (a) apply or attach a label to it that indicates its intended use and bears the expression “Not for Use as Human Food” or “ne peut servir à l’alimentation humaine”; or

  • (b) dispose of it in accordance with section 66.

• Marginal note:Specified risk material

  (3) Despite subsection (2), the licence holder must keep a meat product that is a specified risk material, contains a specified risk material or is derived from a specified risk material in a separate area of the inedible products area and must handle and destroy it in accordance with Part I.1 of the Health of Animals Regulations.

SUBDIVISION ITreatment

Marginal note:Contaminated meat product

156 A licence holder must take one of the following measures in respect of a contaminated meat product:

• (a) subject it to a treatment or process that eliminates the contamination; or

• (b) identify it as inedible.

Marginal note:Trichinella spp. — pork

157 A licence holder may identify as edible a meat product that is derived from a pig and that does not require further preparation before consumption, other than washing or thawing or exposing it to sufficient heat to warm it without cooking it, only if the conditions for identifying the meat product as edible under section 125 are met and

• (a) the pork is subjected to a treatment or process that inactivates Trichinella spp. viable larvae;

• (b) the pork is derived from a carcass that tests negative for the detection of Trichinella spp. larvae using a method that is shown by evidence to be effective; or

• (c) the pig originates from a farm that operates an on-farm food safety program under which the risk of Trichinella spp. infection is negligible.

Marginal note:Trichinella spp. — equine

158 A licence holder may identify as edible a meat product that is derived from an equine only if the conditions for identifying the meat product as edible under section 125 are met and the equine’s carcass tests negative for the detection of Trichinella spp. larvae using a method that is shown by evidence to be effective.