No privatised meat safety inspections in country abattoirs

The department said further that, while some provinces needed to improve their inspections capacity to guarantee meat safety standards, it would not allow the owners of abattoirs to do their own inspections, fearing that consumers would not be protected if the industry had powers to run its own inspections and quality control.

"If abattoir owners constitute the company, for example, consumers will not be protected and the company will therefore be biased toward abattoirs," the department said. "There is also no consensus with provinces on the single assignee to do the inspections as well as the composition of the proposed company," it said.

According to Selby Bokaba, spokesman for agriculture minister Tina Joemat- Pettersson, the department was discussing loopholes created by the Animal Health Act and the Meat Safety Act with various stakeholders such as the Department of Health. The department hoped that this would bring synergy in food safety inspections in abattoirs and other sectors.

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