The Health Department has requested that at least 22 Catalan slaughterhouses improve their hygiene.
The government warns that not enough bacteria are detected in meat, but that subsequent processes guarantee food safety.
BarcelonaTwo years ago, the Catalan government tightened inspections of slaughterhouses in accordance with a new European regulation, which expands the number of animal species for human consumption that must be inspected. In order to ensure maximum hygiene from the beginning of the process, these facilities must check for the presence of bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter at the time of slaughter, and in addition, the Department of Health also carries out controls to verify compliance with the new regulations. However, in a document to which ARA has had access, Health states that "the operators' self-controls do not reflect the real prevalence" of these bacteria and recognizes that there is a widespread lack of detection that, in some cases, is even "notable."
The head of the Veterinary Service of the Secretariat of Public Health, Lluís Picart, explains that for the moment they have not yet applied sanctions to any of the Catalan slaughterhouses, but they have required at least 22 establishments to incorporate a new plan to reverse the lack of detection in the last two years. In 2023, they requested this from six slaughterhouses, and in 2024, with provisional data, from at least sixteen, an increase that Picart attributes to the fact that they have intensified inspections in the last year and have included establishments that were left out in the first year of the program.
"This doesn't affect food safety. Controls are carried out at a very early stage, just after slaughter, but there are still a whole series of processes to ensure consumer safety. With this program, we want to ensure maximum hygiene from the start," Picart explains. If we can ensure that bacteria are absent at this first stage, subsequent stages can be carried out under "better conditions," and if the meat is found to be contaminated at another stage, it will be easier to identify its causes, adds the head of the Veterinary Service.
"Major discrepancies"
In total, in 2023, the Health Department collected more than 1,000 samples, and slaughterhouses carried out almost 6,000 self-checks, with "large discrepancies" between the results obtained. According to the department's data, which show the actual amount of bacteria, chicken has the highest prevalence of Salmonella (17.30%), followed by turkey (16.67%), beef (15.71%), pork (7.87%), and sheep (2.50%). However, if we look at the data from local producers, the results are far from the official control: turkey, 3.45%; chicken, 3.08%; beef, 1.06%; pork, 0.81%; and sheep, 0%. As for the presence of the bacteria Campylobacter In chickens, the trend is the same: the Health Department detected a prevalence of 11.35%, and slaughterhouses, 4.21%.
With these results, the department is emphatic: "It is necessary for economic operators to carry out more rigorous self-control measures." Furthermore, the Health Department urges establishments that have been required to submit an action plan "to improve their hygiene standards" and recommends that both slaughterhouses and external laboratories that analyze samples apply more exhaustive controls when obtaining, analyzing, and reporting the samples. If the action plans do not work, Picart assures that the establishments will be sanctioned, but also insists that the program is only just beginning to be rolled out and that more time is needed to evaluate the results.
