Meat safety regulatory control in South Africa previously involved veterinary officials inspecting privately owned abattoirs to ensure regulatory compliance. This followed a “command and control” (CAC) model of law enforcement. Within this approach there was a high degree of emphasis in responsibility placed on government in ensuring safe food processing. However because abattoir ownership and meat inspection was privatized in South Africa in the late 1980’s, this method of law enforcement was ineffective. This was because periodic monitoring of abattoirs by government was not an effective way for government to ensure public health, because operators may adopt unsafe or risky practices that may compromise the safety of meat in the absence of government presence. An improved method of control was sought. With the promulgation of the Meat Safety Act 40 of 2000, abattoir owners were legally required to implement a basic food safety system called the Hygiene Management System (HMS). Because the HMS was based on the principles of HACCP, abattoir owners were required to identify food contamination risks, set controls points, set control measures and monitor these control points. Records must also be kept to demonstrate compliance to auditors. Abattoir were then audited by government using the Hygiene Assessment System (HAS). Both these systems were adapted from the United Kingdom. However the Department of Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the national legislative body, did not provide provincial veterinary services (in the nine provinces), who implement legislation, guidelines on how to facilitate HMS implementation at abattoirs and how to ensure objectivity and consistency using the HAS auditing tool, which is largely subjective. Without standards, HAS audit results were very inconsistent amongst officials and were therefore not very reliable. Without reliable audit results, it was impossible to provide any assurance to the public that meat processed at abattoirs were safe for consumption. Two problems emerged from this (1) the inspector’s role changed from inspector to auditor, yet the auditing competence of inspectors was lacking and (2) abattoir owners were not given guidelines on how to implement the HMS.
Gauteng Veterinary Services (GVS), a provincial department located in the Gauteng Province, decided to create standards to firstly ensure that HAS audit results generated by government officials were reliable, and secondly to ensure that abattoir owners were given guidelines on how to implement and maintain their HMSs. This was accomplished by GVS implementing the ISO 17020:1998 competency management standard. GVS is currently an accredited inspection body. This implies that procedures and standards within procedures are internationally accredited and may be trusted. The implication is that meat inspected by GVS can be assured as safe within the current scope of accreditation. The second aspect of innovation by GVS to ensure safe meat to the public, was to create a scheme, using the HAS results, to award best performing abattoirs on good hygiene management. These scores also provide the public with confidence that meat processed at particular abattoir were of good quality and is safe.
GVS has surpassed its legislative mandate by formally being accredited as a competent inspection body, and further created a link of communication to the public on its auditing results of abattoirs, to allow for freedom of choice of consumers on which abattoirs to trust.
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