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China launches four-month push to clean up pork slaughter
Story Date: 2/16/2012
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Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 2/15/12
Chinese officials are launching an intensive four-month campaign in March that will focus on improving standards at pig processing plants, according to Chinese media reports.
The push comes at the midpoint of China’s planned 10-month crackdown on illegal meat slaughtering in an effort to ensure food safety in advance of the upcoming Spring Festivals.
Six Chinese government agencies — including the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce — launched investigations of meat produced by more than 18,000 slaughterhouses and processors in October.
The goal is to have only authorized processors managing the meat supply by June 2012, according to the news reports.
The program also includes tighter regulation of new slaughterhouses, setting minimum levels of animals distributed on an annual basis to 20 million fowl, 200,000 pigs or sheep and 50,000 head of cattle. The Chinese government is also encouraging larger processing companies to build 10 giant plants by 2015.
Since October, China has seized more than 14,000 pounds of substandard meat in Jiangsu Province, and traces of the pig feed additive clenbuterol were discovered in March 2011 in Henan Province.
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