Officers from the Carcass Classification Division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) have conducted 222 inspections across 22 factories, as of December 23, 2021, mechanically classifying carcasses.
According to a statement from DAFM, the average number of inspections exceeds the requirement under the relevant EU legislation.
The EU legal requirement for monitoring classification is a minimum of eight inspections/factory/year and must include a minimum of 40 carcasses at each inspection.
As of December 23, 2021, an average of 10 inspections has been conducted/factory, and an average of 100 carcasses were inspected at each inspection.
The number of carcass-grading inspections in 2021 was reduced because of Covid-19 restrictions, but continued to exceed the number required by legislation, according to the department’s statement to Agriland.
Continuing, the statement explained: “Unannounced checks by classification officers verify the ongoing accuracy of the automated beef grading methods by using a system of points and limits defined in EU legislation.
“The mechanical classification method must operate within legally defined tolerances at all times. As with any mechanical system, grading machines can, from time to time, fall out of tolerance,” the Department of Agriculture’s statement acknowledged.
As of December 23, mechanical classification was suspended on one occasion following an inspection by classification officers.
Where a machine is found operating outside of tolerance, the factory is instructed to cease mechanical classification and revert to manual grading.
The factory must then arrange for the classification machine to be serviced and when this service is completed, the department’s classification section is notified and classification officers conduct a further classification exercise on 100 carcasses – to confirm that it is working within the legal tolerances before mechanical grading is allowed to recommence.
Farmers are informed on their remittance dockets where manual grading is applied.