Two meat factories were ordered to revert from mechanical grading of carcases to manual grading to date this year after machines were found to be working outside the tolerance allowed.Mechanical grading machines must operate within legally defined tolerances at all times and when a machine is found to be working outside of these tolerances, the meat plants concerned are instructed to revert to manual grading, newly appointed Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary has said.
Two meat factories were ordered to revert from mechanical grading of carcases to manual grading to date this year after machines were found to be working outside the tolerance allowed.
Mechanical grading machines must operate within legally defined tolerances at all times and when a machine is found to be working outside of these tolerances, the meat plants concerned are instructed to revert to manual grading, newly appointed Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary has said.
“Farmers are advised through their remittance dockets where manual grading is applied. Regarding the suspension of mechanical grading, this occurred on two occasions to date in 2020 and the factories in question were instructed to revert to manual grading.
“In all instances, classification officers from my Department conduct a classification check before a factory is allowed to recommence mechanical grading.
“In 2019, mechanical grading was suspended on six occasions,” Minister Calleary said in response to Independent TD Denis Naughten.
Carcase trim inspections
No factory has been fined for non-compliance with carcase presentation to date in 2020, the minister said.
“To date, in 2020, officers from the carcase classification division of my Department have conducted over 260 inspections across 32 factories (mechanical and manual grading plants) and over 23,600 carcases were inspected.
“During these inspections, officers monitored compliance with the EU reference carcase presentation specification.
“Monitoring of carcase presentation was also carried out by my Department's veterinary public health staff based in the factories, on a daily basis,” he said.
Sit-in
In 2018, there was farmer fury over carcase grading after it was revealed that there were 21 cases of excessive carcase trim and the factories involved were fined.
Then Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed was called on to name the factories.
The IFA staged a sit-in at Department offices in Dublin until the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed named the factories fined for excessive carcase trim.
Read more
How to appeal a carcase grade
Farmers to be compensated when a carcase is excessively trimmed
Changes to improve grading accuracy
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