AST 4: Animal Products Importance

• The course is AST 4 titled "Slaughter of Animals and Processing of their Products"
• This course includes live animal inspection, slaughter and flaying practices, poultry dressing, carcass evaluation, fabrication, and processing techniques for meat, poultry, products, and milk
• Course objectives include discussing importance of animal products and identifying slaughter terminologies

Importance of Animal Products

• Worldwide animal agriculture is largely focused on producing high-quality meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs
• The animal processing industry is consumer-driven and provides higher incomes and jobs
• Streamlining production and improving disease management is critical to meeting target demands
• Livestock health and quality is determined by genetics, care, nutrition, and environment
• Production methods and marketing practices influence the quality of animal products
• Animal products are generally targeted towards providing a good quality of life for animals, achieving full product potential and creating a nutritious, safe food supply

Animal Processing Industry

• Has evolved into a large, corporate, automated industry using the entire animal
• The industry originally consisted of small, privately owned plants processing few animals daily
• Animals are now processed in large, state-of-the-art facilities that handle thousands per day
• Newer processing plants commonly have rendering facilities, turning inedible parts into byproducts like blood meal, bone meal, and feather meal
• The Meat Inspection Act of 1906, prompted by consumer concerns, started federal meat inspection by the USDA
• The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 sought to prevent unfair practices by packing and stockyard companies and initiated scale testing for accuracy
• The Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 standardized inspections to be similar to federal inspections
• Meat, poultry, and egg inspections are currently implemented by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service
• Inspections ensure wholesomeness, safety, and accurate labeling of meat, poultry, and egg products

Processing Affects Value of Product

• Many businesses are involved in the animal processing industry
• Some processors buy raw animal products and process them into wholesale products
• Others do all processing to make edible products available at the retail level
• Byproducts can be either edible or inedible, with more processing leading to higher end-product value
• The amount of processing affects the end product cost
• Value-added products undergo many processing steps, increasing costs but reducing consumer preparation time

Marketing and Processing

• Animal marketing focuses on assuring consumer demand
• This stage includes transportation, grading, selling, and inspection of animal products moving from producer to consumer
• Animal processing is preparation for consumption/use, altering products' based on their functionality
• Pork and beef can be processed into various cuts then attractively packaged
• Animal products are used for food, clothing, ornamentation, companionship, work, research, and environmental functions
• Veal is meat from cattle younger than three months, while beef is from cattle three months or older
• Lamb is meat from sheep under one year, and mutton is from sheep one year or older
• Pork is meat from swine

Slaughtering Terminology

• Abattoir or slaughterhouse: Premises approved for slaughtering and dressing food animals for human consumption
• A: Abattoir with minimum facilities for meat suitable only for distribution within the city or municipality
• AA: Abattoir with adequate facilities for meat suitable for sale in any local or national market
• AAA: Abattoir with facilities for meat appropriate for sale in any domestic or international market
• Abattoir, Accredited: Approved by the National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC)
• Abattoir, Non-accredited: Not meeting NMIC criteria, but allowed by the local government unit (LGU)
• Agricultural Enterprise: Farming and related activities, including cultivation, raising livestock, and forestry (excluding manufacturing)
• Animal Population: The number of domesticated animals present at a specific time, also known as animal inventory
• Animal Sold for Other Purpose: Culled breeders and piglets for fattening
• Brand: Mark/stamp/tag/label indicating LI/DMI approval
• Canned Meat: Meat packed in sealed containers, sterilized with added heat or not
• Canning: Preserving meat in sealed containers
• Carcass: Body of a slaughtered animal after bleeding and dressing
• Carcass: Fresh meat of a slaughtered animal after bleeding, dressing, and removal of offal
• Carcass Weight: Is the weight of the animal after slaughter and removal of the offals (cows, pigs, etc)
• Chilling: Is the most important step in the cold-chain process for preserving meat
• Cold slaughter: Slaughtering double dead animals
• Condemned: Carcass deemed unsound and unfit for human consumption, but usable as feed
• Culling / Culled: Removal of undesirable, usually unproductive animals from a herd or flock
• Culling Rate: Number of culls divided by the total herd or flock number, multiplied by 100
• Disposition: The number of heads slaughtered on farm, sold alive or slaughter, culled and died within the reference period
• Dressed Weight: The total weight of the carcass including hides/skins, blood, and edible/inedible offal
• Dressing: Separation of a food animal into carcass, offals, and inedible byproducts on the dressing floor, potentially including removal of head, skin, genital organs, urinary bladder, feet, and udder
• Dressing Percentage - A ratio of the dressed/carcass weight of birds/animals to its live weight
• Dressing Plant: Facilities used in slaughtering poultry
• Dressing Plant, Accredited: Facilities registered and approved by the NMIC
• Dressing Plant, Non-accredited: A poultry dressing plant that has not met NMIC criteria
• Edible Offal: Offal from slaughtered animals passed as fit for consumption
• Evisceration: Removal of visceral organs from the carcass
• Fabrication: Cutting carcass into standard wholesale and retail cuts
• Farm gate Price: Price received by farms at the point of first sale between farmers/producers and buyers
• Fasting: Withholding food, but not water, from animals before slaughter
• Fit for human consumption: Meat that has been inspected, approved and marked as safe and wholesome
• Flaying/skinning: Removal of skin/hide from a slaughtered or dead animal
• Fleece and Wool: Hairs from goats and sheep
• Fresh Meat: Untreated meat, preserved only by modified atmosphere packaging or refrigeration
• Giblets: Heart, liver, and gizzard
• Hide: Outer covering of cattle, buffalo, and horses removed during slaughter
• Hot Meat: Illegally slaughtered and sold meat from food animals/poultry
• Hot-Blooded: Referring to horse of Eastern or Oriental blood
• Inspection: Official act to ensure compliance with rules and regulations plus humane handling, ante/post mortem, quality assurance
• Inspection, Ante-Mortem: Inspection of live animals before slaughter
• Inspection, Post-Mortem: Inspection of carcass and offal
• Integrators: Companies that breed, hatch, feed, grow, and process food animals
• Meat: Edible carcass and offal from food animals, fresh, chilled, or frozen
• Meat Consumption: Per capita meat consumption multiplied by human population
• Meat Establishment: Approved premises for slaughter, preparation, processing, or storage of meat
• Meat Processing: Altering fresh meat by grinding, cutting, or mixing, or any other method.
• Meat Processor: A person/entity engaged in the production of finished meat products by processing
• Meat Product: Any product capable of being used as human food
• Meat Production: Aggregate volume of meat recovered from locally raised animals
• Meat Retailers: Persons selling meat to the ultimate consumers, with further fabrication
• Meat Supply: Aggregate volume of meat recovered from slaughtered and imported animals
• Offal: Edible or non-edible parts of slaughtered animals other than the carcass
• Prime Cuts: Cuts of port composed of the loin, ham, belly and shoulder
• Processing: Manufacturing and preservation methods, excluding prepackaging of fresh, chilled, or frozen meat
• PSE: Pale, soft and exudative meat (swine)
• Reactor: Animal shows evidence of disease after specific test application
• Read Meat: Meat from cattle, swine, sheep, goats and to a lesser extent, horses and other animals (i.e. buffaloes, deer)
• Residues: Foreign substances remaining in the carcass that are hazardous to human health
• Rigor Mortis: Muscle hardening occurring hours after death, estimating time of death
• Rigor Mortis: Muscle stiffening after death due to muscle contraction (stress and improper animal handling)
• Scalding and Scraping: Treating carcass with hot water/steam to remove bristles/feathers efficiently
• Singeing: Using flame to burn scraped and unshaved hair from carcasses
• Slaughter: Butchering animals for human consumption
• Slaughtered on Farm: Animals butchered for commercial/home use
• Sold Alive / Slaughtered: Animals sold for meat during a reference period
• Sticking: Cutting an animal's neck to sever major blood vessels, causing rapid blood loss and death
• Stunning: Rendering an animal unconscious
• Suspect: Food animal potentially affected by a disease/condition that needs condemnation or further examination
• Tripe: Rumen, reticulum, and omasum of compound stomach animals
• Value of Livestock and Poultry: The value of the animal with reference to its farm gate price
• Value of Production: The value of the meat produced with reference to its retail price
• Veterinary Inspector or Meat Control Officer: Veterinarian responsible for meat hygiene supervision and control
• Restriction/Restraining Pen: Properly restraining slaughter animals before stunning or bleeding to ensure stability, with different types of restraints for different species
• Hanging carcass weight: Is the weight of a dressed carcass as it hangs from the rail
• Dressing percentage (DP): (hot carcass weight/live weight) * 100
• Shrinkage or shrink: Weight loss of a live animal from gathering to slaughter
• Cooler shrinkage: Weight loss that occurs when moisture leaves a carcass during chilling
• Carcass to bone ratio: Ratio of carcass weight to bone weight
• Carcass makeup: Split into halves between the 12th and 13th rib, 45% of the weight will be in the hindquarters, 55% in the forequarters