Auditing of Official Control in Finnish Red Meat Slaughterhouses

Introduction: The quality of meat inspection and food safety inspections (including verification of the slaughterhouses’ own-check systems) performed by the official veterinarians (OVs) in the slaughterhouses is important for meat safety. The EU member states have to ensure that official control in slaughterhouses is performed according to the regulations. Every high-capacity slaughterhouse in Finland has a chief OV who has the main responsibility for the meat and food safety inspections. In Finland, the Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira) performs internal audits to verify the quality of the official control in slaughterhouses. In 2009–2013, Evira performed on average 9 audits of meat or food safety inspections in high-capacity slaughterhouses annually.

Purpose: The aims of our study were to investigate the importance and advantages of the audits performed by Evira in the slaughterhouses.

Methods: In May 2015, chief OVs from 11 of the 13 red meat high-capacity slaughterhouses in Finland participated in a standardized, open-ended interview. The interviewees were asked to evaluate the importance of auditing on a scale from 1 (very unimportant) to 10 (very important) and to describe the benefits gained from auditing. Also the preferred frequency of the audits was inquired.

Results: The chief OVs assessed it important that meat inspection (mean 7.9, 95% confidence interval [CI], 7.0–8.8) and food safety inspections (mean 8.2, 95% CI 7.4–8.9) in the red meat slaughterhouses are audited by Evira. During the audits, OVs received feedback that enabled them to improve their inspections and most of the interviewees also stated that the audits hastened the correction of the slaughterhouse’s non-compliances. The interviewees considered that auditing of both meat and food safety inspections should be performed at least every second or third year.

Significance: Regular audits of official control in slaughterhouses contribute to the quality of meat and food safety inspections.