The regulations on food chain information are part of the provisions of the EU hygiene package and serve to ensure food safety with regard to the entire production chain. Accordingly, animals may only be slaughtered if the slaughterhouse has certain information from the producer about the animals supplied from his herd.
Slaughterhouses must request, receive and check this information. This includes the animal health status of the farm of origin, the health status of the animals, production data that may indicate the occurrence of diseases and information on relevant data from previous meat and ante-mortem inspections. Furthermore, it must be indicated whether there are signs of relevant diseases affecting the safety of the meat and whether any medicinal treatments have been administered seven days prior to movement. Sample analyses with relevance for public health (e.g. salmonella status) must also be indicated. If not already known to the slaughterhouse, the name and address of the veterinarian consulted must be given. The information must be signed by the farmer as the food business operator responsible for the animals.
The food chain information must always be available 24 hours before the arrival of the slaughter animals at the slaughterhouse. The reason for this is that slaughterhouse operators are responsible for checking the food chain information in order to decide whether to accept the animals for slaughter on their premises. The information must then be made available to the official veterinarian without delay. In order to be able to act on this information, a lead time is generally required. Pigs, calves and horses that are delivered to slaughterhouses without the food chain information may not be slaughtered.
The national legislator has specified a model for the standard declaration, which has been published as an annex to the Animal Food Hygiene Ordinance.
