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An apparent letter of response from the slaughterhouse states that employees had rigorously cleaned overhead rails, support rods and beams by scraping and pressure washing, but that debris continued to be a problem and may be coming from soot from the scalding tank, used to loosen the hair of carcasses and the feathers on poultry.

The names and addresses of out-of-compliance slaughterhouses are blacked out in the documents, released under freedom of information laws.

Photo by Getty Images/iStockphoto / PNG

In the 1980s, B.C. contracted with the federal Canadian Food Inspection Agency to inspect meat at provincially licensed plants. In 2014, the B.C. government assumed responsibility for those inspections after the federal agency announced it wanted out of the role in B.C., Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In other areas of the country, provinces already handled provincial meat inspections.

In B.C., there are 63 class A and B provincial slaughterhouse operations that sell meat within the province only. There are 68 federally inspected slaughterhouses in B.C.3 shipping products outside of the province.

Class A licences include slaughtering, cutting and wrapping, while class B licences are only for slaughtering. The Ministry of Agriculture has about 50 employees dedicated to inspections.

All provincially licensed operations must have an inspector on site during slaughtering (that was also the case when the CFIA handled the inspections). The province’s Meat Inspection Regulation is designed to ensure that animals are humanely handled and slaughtered, carcasses are processed in a clean environment, and meat is packaged and stored in ways that reduce contamination.