From farm to freezer: the EU pork production chain

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Farming

For EU pig farmers, taking care of the well-being of their animals is crucial. They monitor the air temperature and humidity, whilst ensuring that the pigs have an adequate amount of room to live in. The employees who look after the animals have vast pig farming knowledge, performing sanitary check-ups regularly. The overall farming process is carried out under strict supervision by veterinary professionals, whose special selection of breeds guarantee proper muscle structure, weight gain, and tenderness.

Feeding

Of equal influence on the quality of the meat, is the feeding of the animals, which is adjusted to individual stages of the animals' development. The pigs undergo scrupulous controls, where it is prohibited to add antibiotics, hormones or growth stimulants to the feeds. This guarantees full safety of the product.

Disease testing

Before sending the animals for slaughter, the whole herd undergoes tests for the presence of diseases. Only healthy animals, which obtained a proper certificate from a veterinarian, are sent for slaughter. Proper conditions of transport of swine help to reduce pre-slaughter stress and the risk of injuries in animals, which also affects the quality of obtained raw material. Separate provisions regulate this, which define the maximum permissible time of transport and its conditions.

Stunning

Stunning of animals is aimed at ensuring humanitarian slaughter conditions. EU farmers are obliged to minimise the suffering of animals, requiring a professional method of complete blocking of animal's consciousness. Slaughter and evisceration of the carcase are carried out only by trained staff. Once these procedures are performed, post-slaughter examinations of the carcase, their quality control, and classification are carried out. Processes connected with meat ageing also takes place immediately after slaughter.

Selection

Selection of pork pieces is performed in a controlled temperature, in a micro-biologically clean environment. From there, meat is packed with the use of modern technologies which effectively prevent drying of meat and development of micro-organisms. This ensures that the meat stays fresh and maintains its proper colour.

Freezing

Freezing allows significant prolonging of the use-by-date of meat. The meat is packaged with identification of the individual stages that have taken place including the name of the product, trade quality class, thermal state, batch number, use-by-date, storage conditions, net weight, and instructions for use, country of origin, packing method, veterinary sign and information about the producer or the distributor. This information allows consumers to fully identify the product they receive.

Best practice

In recent years, European meat producers have developed unique systems and procedures that guarantee reproducible quality of their pork. As a result of the wealth of experience of EU producers of the meat industry in feeding and breeding pork, performing the stunning process and freezing pork, European meat is produced in a manner that ensures its natural tenderness and succulence of meat.