Program Overview

Animal Welfare and Meat Processing

Course Overview

The Animal Welfare and Meat Processing course is designed for delegates at all levels who have an interest in the meat industry and supply chain. The course covers red meat processing from leaving the farm, through slaughterhouse operations, carcass handling, and butchery, to maturation and secondary processing.

Benefits

As a result of the course, participants will be able to:

• Appraise the key factors affecting animal welfare for red meat processing from farm gate to slaughter and evaluate impact on product quality and yield.
• Analyse slaughtering and deboning operations to assess management requirements and the identification of key performance indicators and their control in the context of overall process control.
• Evaluate food quality and safety requirements in the context of legislation, industry codes of practice, and customer requirements for the purpose of establishing process management requirements which will ensure the production of high-quality and safe products.
• Evaluate slaughtering, butchery, and processing techniques in context with processing requirements and business objectives concerning yield maximisation, giveaway, and cost control.

Course Content

• Principles of animal welfare, the ethical frameworks that inform evaluations about animal welfare, the scientific assessment of an animal’s welfare status, and approaches that might be taken to improve welfare.
• Pre-slaughter animal management: visual assessment and grading of animals; transport considerations; lairage design and animal management; welfare considerations; pre-mortem factors affecting meat quality (age, stress management, injury, feeding); production records; traceability; legal requirements.
• Slaughterhouse operations: slaughtering, skinning, and evisceration (cattle, sheep, and pigs); microbiological factors affecting quality and safety; post-mortem glycolysis; product defects (cold shortening, DFD, PSE meat); FSA inspection techniques and practices; red and green offal process and management; edible co-products and animal by-products; quality improvement; cost control and reduction.
• Carcass and primal butchery: carcass splitting; carcass chilling and effects on quality; maturation; cutting and primal production; intermediate packaging and chilled storage.

Prices

£650

Dates

• 9-11 September 2025 (Online)