National animal welfare standards for livestock processing establishments

In 2005, the Australian Meat Industry Council, in collaboration with the Animal Welfare Science Centre (AWSC) developed and launched National Animal Welfare Standards for Livestock Processing Establishments. These standards were designed to reflect:

• the key requirements of the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Livestock at Slaughtering Establishments,
• the Australian Standards for the Production and Transportation of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption,
• current knowledge from the scientific literature,
• commercial customer requirements and
• current practice in the meat industry.

At the time of developing the standards, it was realised that there was no specific and consolidated document that presented the meat processing industry's animal welfare standards and that defined appropriate practices and audit processes, including effective stunning and exsanguination. Thus, the standards were developed to provide a comprehensive document for animal welfare that could be integrated into existing Quality Assurance (QA) practices and the Approved Arrangements required for export license.

The National Animal Welfare Standards for Livestock Processing Establishments were reviewed in 2009-2010. The review of the standards was initiated to acknowledge several new drivers facing the industry:

• new and emerging customer requirements;
• the development of new legislative requirements for animal welfare;
• the increasing need to develop implementation materials and training for industry in animal welfare;
• the need to demonstrate clear standards for managing new and existing welfare issues (such as stunning and slaughter);
• the need to meet increasing customer and community expectations regarding animal welfare.

The project applied knowledge from new R&D and industry practice to update the Standards. This reflects industries' commitment to achieving best practice in animal welfare standards to meet both current and potential consumer demands for domestic and export markets. The project also determined gaps in knowledge and items requiring revision in the current Codes of Practice for future reference during the development of legislative standards.

MLA contributed to development of the standard and hardcopies are available from the Australian Meat Industry Council.