Meat safety legislation and its opportunities and hurdles for innovative approaches: A review.

Albert Einstein has been quoted "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them". Innovations are necessary to meet future challenges regarding sustainability, animal welfare, slaughter hygiene, meat safety and quality, not at least for optimal balance between these dimensions. The red meat safety legislation texts from Europe, New Zealand, USA, and global guidelines, were analysed for normative formulations ("how it is or should be done") that may create non-intentional hurdles to innovation and new technology. Detailed descriptions of slaughtering techniques and meat processes may hinder innovative processing from being investigated and implemented. The identified problematic normative phrases typically either conserve conventional technologies or organisation of the work, prescribe solutions where no established method, objective criteria or limits exits, or put forward visions impossible to obtain. The Codex Alimentarius was found to have less normative formulations and more functional demands ("what to achieve") than the national and regional regulations. European, New Zealand's and US' legislation share many similarities and challenges, and they all reflect the prevailing processing methods. Consequences are briefly commented, and alternative objective functional demands suggested. Normative legislation texts provide familiar context easier to understand, but also make legislation voluminous. This review underlines the mutual dependency between risk-based legislation and conditional flexibility, and between functional demands and control activities targeted on measurable objective criteria. The legislation does not have to be either or. Objective normative phrases in legislation can function as a least common multiple if alternative methods are allowed on condition that they fulfil objective criteria. Context and practical advice should mainly come from textbooks, consultants, white papers and in Food Business Operator's own guidelines, among others.

Effect of Stocking Density during CO2 Stunning of Pigs on Induction Time and Activity Level Measured Using AI.

During the CO2 stunning of pigs, a variation in their reaction to the gas and the duration of the induction period is observed. The stunning process can be affected by several conditions, such as stressful events and previous experiences, but the stocking density in the gondola may also have an impact. The objective was to investigate the effect of stocking density on the stunning process under commercial conditions. To quantify the pigs' reactions under industrial settings with a stocking density of up to eight pigs pr. Gondola (3.91 m2), the activity level was measured using an AI solution. Compared with a simulation of the expected induction period, a significantly longer induction period was found in gondolas containing seven and eight pigs (p < 0.001) but not when the gondolas contained three or four pigs. Both high and mean activity levels were significantly higher when stocking density was increased from three or four pigs to seven or eight pigs. The stunning process was thus negatively affected when increasing the stocking density. More knowledge is needed to explain this effect and to make statements on optimal stocking density. The measured activity levels may be a useful tool for obtaining information under commercial conditions and for documenting animal welfare.