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Edible Meat Control Process

Edible meat control is exercised by the Food & Hygiene section along with the Abattoir. Both these sections are a part of the Public Health Department of M & CC.

Abattoir

The Abattoir section in the Public Health department manages the City Abattoir at Water Street. The main activities that are performed by this department are:

  1. Managing the activities of the Master Butcher, Slaughterers & Tripe workers
  2. Fees collection
  3. Inspection

The bovine and porcine animals for the city are sourced from the 3 counties of Essequibo, Demarara and Berbice and brought to the Georgetown municipal abattoir for slaughtering before being sold in the Georgetown markets. It is the responsibility of the abattoir to maintain pounds for animals to be kept before they are slaughtered.

The abattoir issues licenses to a set of Master butchers who use the abattoir facility for slaughtering of the animals brought in by them. Licence fees as per the current applicable laws are as follows:

Registration fees

This is a licence fee charged for following categories of workers to operate out of the municipal abattoir:

1. Slaughtering of animals:

  • Master Butcher: $15,000 per annum
  • Slaughterer: $2,000 per annum
  • Tripe worker: $2,000 per annum

2. Reinspection of carcasses:

  • Bovine carcasses – $1500.00
  • Porcine carcasses – $1500.00

3. Daily Fees

This is like a facility usage fee that certain categories of workers have to pay to work in the municipal abattoir on a given day. The current fee structures are:

  • Slaughterer:  $200 per day
  • Tripe workers: $ 200 per day

Cattle Transit

Cattle brought to the city of Georgetown for slaughtering are certified to have been sourced legally and consigned to a Master Butcher registered with the municipal abattoir. This certification is done by the police station at the origin point. Cattles are also branded for recognition. Cattle on transit data is captured by this section while checking them into the abattoir. The Transit doc is verified by the Section Clerk before animals enter the Abattoir.

Lairage Fee

The abattoir charges Lairage or the pen fees to keep the animals in the pen before they are sent for slaughtering.  The Lairage fee is $ 400 for Bovine and Porcine.