Advancing the hygiene management system at poultry abattoirs in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

The Meat Safety Act, Act 40 of 2000 compels all registered abattoirs in South Africa to implement and maintain a Hygiene Management System (HMS) to ensure the safe processing of meat. The HMS is a basic food safety system that focuses on process standards that are designed to reduce the risk of contamination of meat and meat products during processing. Part of the Poultry regulations provide the requirements of HMS and were published by government on the 24th of February 2006. However, no guidelines were published or made available to poultry abattoir operators on how to interpret and implement the requirements of the HMS. The aim of this research was to determine the extent of HMS implementation at poultry abattoirs in Gauteng. The intention was to identify short comings, if any, within implemented HMSs with the intention of promoting compliance. This was achieved by developing common themes from research audit findings. These themes were then used to suggest critical areas that should be addressed during the development of an HMS implementation guideline document.