Meat Inspection History (early 1990s)

The history of the centralised Meat Inspection Service of Northern Ireland from the early 1990s.

Another landmark in the evolution of the Service was the introduction of the Single European Market in 1993 and a move within the EC to a "placing on the market" philosophy. In other words primary and secondary meat processing premises which had hitherto only processed for the national (UK) market now had to meet the single (EC export) standard. Over the three following years from 1993 the Service provided advice on the EC legislative aspects of plant design and structure and worked with a large number of small operators to assist them to upgrade, or to rebuild. Some were forced to rationalise their operations, others unfortunately fell well short of the enhanced standards and had to close down. With the increase in number of meat premises requiring supervision, central Government decided to focus the Veterinary Services on the raw and partially processed meats and to pass responsibility for supervising cooked and fully processed meats covered by Directive 77/99 as amended to Environmental Health Departments of Local Authorities (District Councils).