How often are beef carcass grading machines inspected?
Officers from the Carcass Classification Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) conducted 222 checks in 22 factories, as of December 23, 2021, mechanically classifying the carcasses.
According to a statement by the DAFM, the average number of inspections exceeds the requirements of relevant European legislation.
The EU legal requirement for classification monitoring is a minimum of eight inspections / plant / year and must include a minimum of 40 carcasses at each inspection.
As of December 23, 2021, an average of 10 inspections have been conducted / plant, and an average of 100 carcasses have been inspected at each inspection.
The number of carcass grading inspections in 2021 was reduced due to Covid-19 restrictions, but continued to exceed the number required by law, according to the department’s statement to Agriland.
The statement continued, “Unannounced checks by grading officers verify the continued accuracy of automated beef grading methods using a point and limit system defined in EU law.
“The mechanical classification method must operate at all times within the tolerances defined by law. As with any mechanical system, the grading machines can, from time to time, fall outside the tolerances, ”acknowledges the press release from the Ministry of Agriculture.
As of December 23, the mechanical classification was suspended on one occasion following an inspection by classification officers.
When a machine operates outside of tolerances, the factory is responsible for ceasing mechanical grading and reverting to manual grading.
The factory should then make arrangements for the grading machine to be maintained and when this service is complete the department’s grading section is notified and grading officers perform another grading exercise on 100 carcasses – to confirm that it operates within legal tolerances before mechanical classification. is allowed to start over.
Farmers are informed of their remittance slips where manual grading is applied.
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