Cured Meat Products
Practical Action
materials to ensure that all surfaces are easily cleaned and have no cracks that could harbour
grease, dirt or insects. All internal walls should ideally be clad with plastic laminated boards that
can be easily cleaned (and may be a legal requirement if meat products are to be exported). If
cladding is not available, walls should be plastered or rendered with concrete and the lower parts
tiled to at least 1.5 metres above the floor. Higher parts of walls can be painted with good
quality gloss paint if tiling is too expensive.
The floor should be tiled with non-slip terrazzo floor tiles. Because meat processing involves
using a lot of water, the floor should slope to a drain to prevent pools of stagnant water forming,
which would allow insects and micro-organisms to breed. The drainage channel should be
covered with a metal grating that can be removed to clean the drain. A wire mesh cover should
be fitted over the drain exit to prevent rodents and crawling insects getting into the building
through the drain. This should also be easily removed for cleaning.
Opening windows should be screened with mosquito
mesh. Thin metal chains or strips of plastic can be hung
from door lintels to deter flying insects, or alternatively,
mesh door screens can be fitted. A panelled ceiling
should be fitted rather than exposed roof beams, which
would allow dust to accumulate that might contaminate
products. There should be no holes in the ceiling or roof,
and no gaps where the roof joins the walls, which would
allow birds and insects to enter. One or more insect
‘electrocutors’ (Fig. 1) should be hung from the ceiling in
the processing room.
Figure 1: Insect electrocutor.
Photo from Actron Inc
An adequate supply of clean water (of drinking quality)
should be available from taps in the processing room. Hosepipes with pistol-grip adjustable
sprays should ideally be used for washing down floors and equipment. If necessary, water should
be treated to remove bacteria. The cheapest and easiest way is to use bleach (also known as
‘chlorine solution’ or ‘hypochlorite’), which is cheap and effective against a wide range of micro-
organisms. Water for cleaning should contain about 200ppm (mg/litre) of chlorine, made by
mixing 1 litre of bleach into 250 litres of water. Commercial treatment units that use ultra-violet
light to destroy micro-organisms in water are suitable for larger-scale processors that use a lot of
water.
Meat processing produces both solid and liquid wastes that contain fat and blood, both of which
are highly polluting if not treated properly. Processors should consult local health authorities
when designing the meat processing room to find out whether special on-site treatment of wastes
is required before disposing of them in municipal drains. If mains drainage is not available, it is
necessary to construct treatment facilities to prevent wastes becoming a breeding ground for
insects or causing pollution of local water supplies. The room should have adequate lighting for
safe operation of equipment. There should be adequate power supplies to operate electrical
equipment. Because meat processing requires refrigerators and/or freezers, it is important that
the power supply is reliable, and in areas where power interruptions are likely, it is necessary to
have a backup generator that starts automatically when the power fails.
Equipment
All meat processing equipment should be designed and constructed so that it can be easily
cleaned. Mixing bowls, tanks etc. should have a smooth internal surface without corners, and all
welds should be ground to a smooth finish. Ideally, all equipment should be made from stainless
steel, but alternatives include polished aluminium, or food grade plastic for containers and
equipment that are not heated. Mild steel cannot be used because it will rust and contaminate
products, and brass, iron or copper cannot be used because they promote rancidity of fats in
meat products.
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