The difference among Halal, Kosher, and other cultural group slaughter requirements
A first step in knowing the market is to understand the strict meat handling requirements of some cultures. Muslim consumers require their meats to be “Halal” or “lawful” to their religious scriptures. For many this means it should be slaughtered using “zabiha” methods. Halal requires that the animal must be humanely killed by an adult Muslim. However, some Muslims will accept Kosher killed meats (especially if halal is unavailable) and some will accept meat killed by a Christian slaughterman.
During a zabiha kill, the animal faces Mecca and the Takbir (a blessing invoking the name of Allah, the Muslim word for “G-d”) is pronounced while the animal is killed without stunning by holding it’s head back and using a quick, single continuous cut across the throat just below the jawbone to sever the windpipe, esophagus, arteries and veins forward of the neck bone. Ideally, the knife blade should be extremely sharp and twice as long as the width of the animal’s neck. A hand guard is permitted for safety. Muslims also view any goat that has consumed any pork (including lard or bloodmeal) products to be unclean. Other feeds that might be categorized as “filth” may also lead to rejection of the animal. A 40 day period prior to slaughter of “clean” feed will generally suffice.
Kosher kill requires that the animal be killed without stunning by a specially trained religious Orthodox Jew, called a “shochet”, using a properly sharpened special knife with no hand guard. The shochet also inspects the carcass and organs for defects. If the meat is to be certified as “glatt” Kosher, a stricter Kosher standard, the carcass from a small animal such as a goat must have no lung adhesions. The sciatic nerve and various veins, fats and blood are prohibited for Kosher consumption and must be removed. In most cases, rather than going through the difficult procedure of removing the sciatic nerve in the hindquarter, only the forequarter is marketed as Kosher and the hindquarter is sold through other marketing channels.
Federally inspected slaughterhouses need to apply for a “religious exemption” from stunning to conduct Halal and Kosher slaughter. The animal should either be killed on the ground (allowable only for non-inspected slaughter), straddled, or walked onto a double rail for a religious kill because it is inhumane to hoist and shackled the animal by its hind legs while still alive. Although there are national certification programs for Kosher and Halal processed foods, there is no national mandatory labeling and certification for Halal or Kosher meats. For the most part, it is your responsibility to insure that your meat meets your customers’ definitions of Halal or Kosher.
Certain African, Caribbean, and Oriental cultures prefer carcasses to be scalded or singed as part of the processing. A federally inspected slaughterhouse needs to include this step and describe how they will maintain food safety in this process in the mandatory hazard analysis portion of their HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) Plan.
Goat marketing terms
There is a growing market in the US for the consumption of farm fresh product. Some consumers request organic meats while others ask for grass fed meat. Here are some legal descriptions of these terms.
“Organically certified” meats are from livestock that have been raised in compliance with the National Organic Program’s standards (see the module on Organic Meat Goat Production). Their production must be certified by an accredited state or private certifying agency. Strict guidelines must be met. For example, the use of dewormers and antibiotics is forbidden not only for the market goat itself but also for its dam during the last third of pregnancy (gestation) and lactation. Sick animals are to be treated if necessary but can no longer be marketed as organic. All feed and bedding must usually be obtained from certified organic sources.
“Natural” is a food label that does not refer to how the animal was raised but rather to how it was processed. Natural products can contain no artificial ingredients, coloring agents or chemical preservatives and must be minimally processed. Meat can be ground, smoked, roasted, dried, or frozen as long as these procedures do not fundamentally change the raw product.
“Grass fed” is not an official marketing claim. The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has attempted for several years to come up with a standard for this marketing claim. Raising livestock on a forage diet with little or no grain supplementation may increase the amount of beneficial fatty acids (Omega 3 and CLs) in their meat. Originally, AMS suggested that livestock whose primary energy source throughout their lifecycle consisted of at least 80% grass, green or range pasture, or forage could be labeled grass fed. Some producer associations have argued that this level should be as high as 95%.
Meat that is certified as “humanely raised and handled” is from farms that have enrolled in a private certification program such as that of the Humane Farm Animal Care (www.certifiedhumane.com), a consumer certification and labeling program based on standards established by a scientific animal welfare committee. They have no standards for goats but their sheep standards require that sheep have access to artificial or natural shade in all pastures at all time. This could be problematic for farms that move their goats rapidly through intensive pasture paddocks and also for farms that are keeping their worm loads down by discouraging goats from congregating in one portion of the pasture as happens when shade is provided.
Pasture raised, sustainably raised, and locally grown are very loose claim terms. For example, farmer markets handling only “local” product may require that the product be raised within 30 miles while supermarkets may consider product to be local if it can be transported to the store within a set number of hours.
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