Knife sanitizer poultry slaughter HALAL slaughter
HI there,
Anyone care to share how you sanitizer a knife between each animal for ritual slaughter in a traditional inspection slaughterhouse? We are processing ~23 head/min and are required to sanitize the knife between each bird......how can that be done realistically?
Thanks
Almost one every two seconds, that's a mind blowing number of chickens.
I can only think that you dip the knife in a tub of sanitizer between each bird. :dunno:
I am not in poultry, but trying to help: I would have at my disposition a diluted calcium Hypochlorite at a concentration that will kill germs and MSDS of same, with instructions. put same in 2 water containers with a clean clear and potable water at the end for rising before using the ustencil, and when not using soak in the 1st calcium hypochlorite container. simply use more than 1 knife to facilitate the job and save time.
kind regards,
michael G
Question is :
Who has stated that the knife has to be sanitized between each bird?
I worked a Halal poultry slaughter shed and there was no requirement on each bird but on a time basis which was set at each break time or if the person left the area the knife was stored in a sanitizer solution until returning to re commence work.
If it is the company's own Quality System that states this is required then do a risk assessment and ask if it actually is required, then change it to something that is safe but works.
I think that the best suggestion is to have two knives and switch between birds, passing them through the sanitizing process. FSIS only appears to require that the knives be cleaned on a regular basis. More sanitary is better than less, so finding a way to do it better and cleaner is preferable.
Martha
I agree, you need more than 1 knife, we have a similar issue with allergenic powders. We use the 3 sink cleaning method and have lost of scoops. Some in wash , some in rinse , some in sanitize. The number of knives/ scoops is for debate depending on speed of work.
Regards
Sharon
Hello
First let me introduce my self
My name is Bambang Tri from Indonesia
Hello Bambang, thanks for the fascinating insight into the Halal slaughtering procedure.
I Know nothing about it at all so excuse this question if is stupid. :smile:
Is Halal slaughter solely a religious requirement or are there elements within the procedure that are related to maintaining hygienic conditions / food safety control of the meat itself...way back then and now?
For our purposes, our reputation has been built upon the HALAL slaughter and is about 90% of our market domestically and in the US. We are about a million birds behind in orders and don't realistically expect to ever catch up and demand is forecast to be higher month over month. We had to be approved by the Muslim society to be able to stamp our product halal. It gets a bit tricky for us as the section of the CFIA regulation is not complete so each inspector takes a different stance. We do stun our animals, but by Muslim law, we do not have to, the inspectors do not like that at all. It comes to a lack of understanding and/or that halal slaughter is relatively new to the Canadian Inspectors.
I was involved in Halal Beef slaughter and we had some concerns with this for food safety too. When it comes down to it, you should be using a different knife for each cut. It keeps contaminates from the outside of the bird such as fecal, from contaminating meat over and over again. We had a set up of two guys each with two knifes and two hot sanitizing stations. After every cut they'd drop they're knife into a stand where it went down into 180F+ water for at least 5 seconds. With how fast you're killing birds you may have to use three knives to rotate but it keeps two guys rotating and they're able to keep up and grab a new sanitized knife every time. You'll need to validate the process and I've seen other companies use a quat solution if you don't have the capacity for a hot water/steam sanitizing station. You'll just have to verify that knives are clean.
You could also just verify after so many cuts that your knives are still clean if that is the case. Test for salmonella/other micro contaminants on the knife after cutting for an hour and see if your results show no contamination. If you can prove what you do already is safe and sanitary they shouldn't be able to require you to do more.
The swabbing is a good idea, thank you.