Meat Safety Act, 2000 (Act No. 40 of 2000)Ostrich Regulations, 2007Part V : Humane Treatment of Ostriches and Slaughter Process79. Flaying and evisceration |
| 1) | Dressing must commence without delay after defeathering by making opening incision lines on a hide or skin with a clean sterile hand knife from the inside to the outside only (spear cuts), but a mechanical flaying knife may not be used for this purpose. |
| 2) | Reproductive organs and any part not utilised commercially must be handled as condemned material and placed in appropriate containers. |
| 3) | All flaying and evisceration equipment making contact with meat must be sterilized after use on each carcass. |
| 4) | During flaying and evisceration of a carcass, contact of the exposed meat with platforms, walls, floor, outer surface of the skin or hide and soiled equipment or other material must be avoided at all times. |
| 5) | Contamination of the carcass, meat or organs with intestinal contents or urine during evisceration must be avoided and where contamination does occur, it must be cut away under the supervision of a registered inspector and not washed off with water. |
| 6) | Evisceration must be done immediately after flaying in such a way that - |
| a) | no organs are damaged causing contamination of the carcass; |
| b) | the airsacs are not damaged before meat inspection; and |
| c) | the thoracic cavity is stripped clean of lungs and other organs after meat inspection unless the carcass, after removal of the legs and other parts, will not be used for human consumption. |
| 7) | All organs and viscera must be made available for meat inspection and must be identifiable with the carcass of origin. |
| 8) | Carcasses may not be cleaned, wiped or dried with a brush, cloth or any other such implement. |
| 9) | The intestines may not be separated from the gizzard during evisceration. |
| 10) | The gizzard or intestines may not be opened in the slaughter area. |