“Cosmetic defect” only, but ewe exports hit

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33062, 1 November 1972, Page 4

“Cosmetic defect” only, but ewe exports hit

Rejections of ewe carcases for export have increased dramatically since the start of the. new killing season because of sarcocysts—rice-like cysts on the carcase.

According to one industry source, the rejection rate has jumped from about 15 per cent to 43 per cent. In one large line of ewes only about an eighth were graded for export.

This has resulted in a slowing down of killing chains, because of the carcases suspected of having the cysts having to be placed on retain rails for further inspection. It is understood that while carcases may be found unfit for export, the meat from them may be exported in boneless form provided it is carrying no cysts. But this adds to costs, in addition to the extra costs being incurred by a slowing down of the killing rate. One effect of the problem might be that stock likely to be affected may have to be bought exclusively on schedule. NOT UNHEALTHY Asked last evening about the problem, Mr J. D. McNab, director of the meat division of the Ministry of Agriculture

and Fisheries, said that new hygiene requirements had been brought in last May or June at the request of the United States, but their impact was only starting to be felt in the South Island.

They required works to comply with the judgment that there was no pathology or abnormal or diseased tissue in products. He said that the problem of the cysts was an aesthetic one, or a “cosmetic defect.” It had no known public health significance. However aesthetic factors could not be ignored. REPERCUSSIVE EFFECT Mr McNab said that these cysts were covered in New Zealand’s own regulations, but these had not been enforced stringently. However, any works or plant exporting to the United States had to have all products from that plant at least equal to the requirements of the United States, he said.