Judith Jansen and Martijn van de Hel are assisting a slaughterhouse on appeal against fines imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (hereinafter: ‘the minister’). According to the minister, the slaughterhouse failed to timely remove visible contamination from carcasses. The minister believes that this alleged failure constitutes an infringement of Regulation 853/2004 and the Animals Act. The regulation requires prevention of contamination, such as bile, hair, faecal contamination, and lubrication from the transport system, during the slaughtering process as well as the immediate removal of any contamination from carcasses.
Disputed is, up to what point in the slaughtering process visible contamination may be removed. Regarding poultry carcasses, the CJEU has held that contamination may be removed until they are chilled, meaning before cutting, packaging, and making the meat available to the consumer. The slaughterhouse in question removes all contamination before the chilling process starts. Therefore, there has been no food safety risk.
The alleged infringements were observed during an inspection by an inspector from the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority ("NVWA”).
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