Hygiene measures to institute at all meat handling facilities 

Goat meat

Traders sell goat meat at Kiamaiko market in Nairobi during the recent Easter holiday.

Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • Safer food reduces occurrence of diseases and contributes to a healthy and productive society.
  • Meat handling facilities range from road side kiosks selling mutura, to the local butchery and nyama choma place.

Food hygiene refers to all the conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety and suitability of food at all stages of the value chain, from production to consumption.

These activities help to produce food that is free from contamination by harmful micro-organisms and help to prolong the shelf-life. 

Meat handling facilities

Some harmful micro-organisms that can compromise the safety of food products include bacteria, yeast, moulds and chemicals. 

Safer food reduces occurrence of diseases and contributes to a healthy and productive society.

One of the foods that is prone to contamination is meat because of its nature – being protein. Meat handling facilities range from road side kiosks selling mutura, to the local butchery and nyama choma place and large meat processing factories. Measures taken to ensure food safety vary in these facilities, but the basic principles are the same. They are:

a) Food hygiene measures should be applied throughout the value chain, from ‘farm to fork’.

b) Food hygiene is everyone’s business and everyone has a role to play. The government’s role is to ensure the development of food safety policies and legislation and oversee monitoring and enforcement of these measures. It should also encourage the implementation of food safety and hygiene measures by providing health education programmes that effectively communicate the principles of food hygiene to industry players and consumers. 

On the other hand, food business operators have the primary responsibility of ensuring safety of the meat they handle through strict adherence to the set regulatory measures and standards.

Additionally, processors should provide relevant, correct and easily-to-understand information to consumers. These can be done through package labels, point-of-sale displays, and other innovative mean

Lastly, consumers should educate themselves on food safety practices by creating a habit of following relevant instructions and applying appropriate food hygiene measures. 

Sources of risks in a meat handling facility

  • Cross contamination of products, for example, between dirty and cleaned meat or raw and cooked products. 
  • Contamination from food handlers.
  • Unsafe raw materials and other ingredients, including unsafe additives 
  • Dirty processing equipment and contact surfaces, for instance tables, knives and containers.
  • Multiplication of micro-organisms in the cold-rooms.
  • Cleaning and sanitising materials such as detergents and disinfectants
  • Physical hazards (metal, glass) 

Enhancing safety of meat in a food handling facility

  • Location and siting. A meat handling facility should ideally be in an area that is far from sources of contamination. They should not be situated near polluting industries, sewage systems or waste-disposal ‘dumping’ sites.
  • Construction should be done using materials that are corrosion-resistant and can be easily cleaned. The properties of the materials used should also be impermeable to water to minimise the growth of micro-organisms.
  • Meat handling equipment should be made using materials that are corrosion-resistant, can be easily cleaned and are impermeable to water. 
  • Adequate safe water and lighting should be provided. Also, uninterrupted power supply is key to ensure maintenance of cold chain equipment or required temperatures need for cooked and pasteurised products.
  • Process procedures and flow should minimise food safety risks. The production flow process should be unidirectional to minimise contamination between raw and finished products.
  • Workers should be free from diseases and conditions that may cause food contamination. They should also be regularly tested and trained in basic hygienic practices, and with their supervisors monitoring compliance at all times. 
  • Food handling facilities should have an adequate pest control system. 
  • Dirty environment poses a risk to public health. Waste from the food handling facility can lead to environmental pollution with public health implications thus should be disposed of in a hygienic way. 

Dr Joyce Thaiya is the Head of veterinary public health at the Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS) in the State Department for Livestock.