Conducted in three languages, Arabic, English and Urdu, the drive aimed at educating the workers on the health and safety standards and regulations in vogue as well as on the mandatory practices mandatory.  The drive also included a corrective introduction to the common mistakes committed during the different stages of slaughter.

Executed by the Slaughter Houses Unit of ADFCA, the drive succeeded in inculcating among the workers the correct procedures in slaughterhouses in order to prevent health risks. These included wearing protective clothes, head covers and gloves for preempting contamination from the worker to the meat and vice versa.

Mohamed Jalal Al Reyaysa, Director of Communication and Community Service at ADFCA, said that the veterinarians conducting the awareness drive focused on all the food safety tips mandatory during slaughter such as washing hands, drying hands properly, right methods of sterilizing slaughter tools, environment-friendly cleaning methods and other precautions against possible contamination.

"There are a number of precautionary measures and mandatory procedures that workers in slaughterhouses must adhere to during the different stages of slaughter, meat preservation and delivery. Right ways of sterilization, freezing and cutting are essential to ensuring the safety of the meat," Al Reyaysa pointed out, adding that the drive will extend to all the slaughter houses, in addition to seminars and conferences planned to deepen awareness about the safety of meat and to preempt health risks to workers and the consumers.

ADFCA is currently gearing up for the annual microbiological field survey on infrastructure of the slaughter houses and poultry farms and the water used in them in order to ensure that all food safety procedures are practiced in full.  The survey will include examining the hygienic conditions, cutting boards, workers' hands and the surroundings.  The purpose is to make sure that no potential for food contamination existed at the many slaughter houses in the emirate.

There are 18 slaughter houses for red meat in the emirate (four in Abu Dhabi City, 6 in the Western Region, eight in Al Ain), in addition to 6 for poultry and two for camels. In the two slaughter houses for camels, a total of 2600 camels were slaughtered in the year 2011, whereas the total number of other animals stood as follows: 410466 in Abu Dhabi city, 243356 in Al Ain and 634876 in the Western Region.

Al Reyaysa stressed the importance of slaughtering animals only in the designated slaughter houses because of the facilities there for veterinary examination before slaughter and adherence to the proper procedures.  "It is a must for making sure the animals are free from diseases and there is no possibility of contamination," he concluded.