FEBRUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Slaughterhouse rules: not so tricky afterall by DAVID SCHMIDT


VERNON – Building and operating a small slaughterhouse doesn’t have to be onerous or expensive.


During last year’s Certified Organic Associations of BC conference in Vernon, Tristan Banwell of Spray Creek Ranch in Lillooet, Steve Meggait and Andrea Gunner of Armstrong Artisan Beef and Corey Brown of Blackbird Organics Farm in Cawston shared their experiences setting up and working with small-scale abattoirs. A lack of nearby slaughter capacity is the main reason for an on-farm slaughterhouse, Banwell says, noting “there are whole areas of the province without slaughterhouses.” Growers may also opt to set up their own facility to ensure the humane handling of their animals, keep costs down or to maintain control of production throughout the chain.


While anyone can slaughter animals on-farm for use by family members or employees, meat slaughtered for sale to others requires an abattoir licence. Two types of licenses are available: a federal license that allows meat to cross provincial borders, and provincial, which come in four classes.


Class A (slaughter, and cut and


wrap) and Class B


(slaughter only)


licenses are intended for larger operations and allow the meat to be sold anywhere in the


province. Class D


licenses are available in 10


designated regional districts and allow the licensee


SPRAY CREEK RANCH PHOTO


to slaughter up to 25 animal units (25,000 pounds live weight) per year. The animals can be from their own farm or others, but the meat may only be sold within that regional district. Class E licenses limit slaughter to 10 animal units (10,000 pounds live weight) annually. The meat may only be sold direct to consumers, either on-farm or at a farmers market. D and E-class facilities must be inspected before they can be licensed,


but they don’t need to have an inspector on hand at the time of slaughter, as is the case with federal and provincial Class A and B licenses. They are, however, subject to periodic


assessments and audits of their slaughter records.


To obtain


his Class D license, Banwell completed a Slaughter Safe training course that enabled him to develop a food safety plan for his facility.


“The application is very


straightforward. The food safety plan takes a bit of time but it’s not complicated,” he says.


“I did the Slaughter Safe course in my kitchen in just two hours,” says Brown, who has been processing his poultry with a Class E license for the


past five years.


Banwell says the inspectors who visited his site were “very helpful” and provided valuable feedback. The only real issue he faced was water, which passes through a four-stage filtration system and an osmosis filter. Andrea Gunner also praised the provincial inspection system, describing the BC Ministry of Agriculture process as much easier than the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regime. BCMA staff assumed responsibility for provincial licensing and inspections in 2007. She called it “a night and day difference,” praising BCMA inspectors for being “much more sensible and easy to deal with.”


Corey Brown said the costs for setting up an on-farm abattoir are not onerous. His whole system, excluding the plucker, only cost him about $200. “You can totally do it on the cheap,”


he said.


What did cost was insurance. “Initially I couldn’t get any


insurance but I eventually did at a cost of $900 a year. It doubled my cost,” Brown said.


The experience has prompted Brown to work with the Small Scale Food Processors Association to secure a cost-effective group insurance policy for small-scale slaughterhouses.


Are You The Best You Can Be? Sometimes, you’re just doing it right.


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Call 1-866-522-3447 to book your confidential, on-farm assessment (no charge) or visit bcefp.ca


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