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This study aims to explore the impacts of long-term trends in the closure of abattoir businesses in the UK on the robustness of the network of abattoirs which provides private kill services.

This proof-of-concept study uses responses from a farmer and an abattoir survey in a spatial analysis to help visualise the private kill network. Monte Carlo simulation is used to estimate the impacts of possible further closures of private kill abattoirs on the robustness of the private kill network.

In August 2020, 18% of the area of the UK was more than 45 km from a private kill abattoir, 21% was serviced by one, 14% by two and 47% by three or more abattoirs. After randomly removing 9 and 18% of private kill abattoirs, to reflect the current trend in the closure of private kill abattoirs, the area of the UK more than 45 km from a private kill service and the areas with one and two providers increased, whilst the area with three or more providers decreased for each scenario. This approach, therefore, can be used to quantify the network's resilience to further closures.

The additional information that would be needed to allow this approach to help policymakers identify strategically valuable abattoir businesses is discussed.

No other national or international study has attempted to quantify the robustness of the network of private kill abattoirs.

The Hygiene Management System (HMS) is a regulated basic food safety system applicable to registered South African abattoirs. There is however, no specific requirement within the HMS that specifies continual improvement (CI). Continual improvement within management systems is critical to ensure that these systems remain relevant, efficient and effective over time. The purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which the HMS requirements facilitate CI and to suggest, if necessary, an approach on how the concept may be realized in practice.

This study was conducted in two parts. The first part of the study developed continual improvement criteria benchmarking the ISO 9000 series. These criteria were then compared against the HMS requirements to determine the theoretical extent to which the HMS supports continual improvement. The second part of the study empirically tested the existing requirements of the HMS that support continual improvement.

This research demonstrates that the HMS is, first designed to support CI to a limited extent and second is not, in practice, implemented towards CI.

This paper presents regulators with gaps that exist within the present regulated HMS requirements in support of CI. It also provides abattoir managers with broad guidelines on how their implemented HMS can be designed towards CI. The research results may foster improvement within the regulated requirements of the HMS and implementation thereof towards improved handling and processing of safe meat at South African abattoirs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the environmental and health impacts of abattoir wastes due to unhygienic disposal methods and inadequate slaughtering facilities as it affects some physicochemical and bacteriological parameters of Woji Creek and its environs.

The study involved the choice of five sampling stations for two different seasons: wet and dry. Standard methods were adopted for field and laboratory studies.

Water samples from station 2 (discharge point station) showed higher concentrations of turbidity, phosphate, biochemical oxygen demand, faecal coliform count for both dry and wet seasons, while dissolved oxygen values were lower at this station than in the other study stations. Water samples were slightly acidic (6.49‐6.70) for the five stations sampled during the study period. At the upstream station, the water had lower levels of turbidity, temperature, phosphate, nitrate, biochemical oxygen demand, faecal coliform count, but the values increased downstream after the discharge point station showing the impact of the abattoir effluents. The results further revealed seasonal influence on the parameters with higher values recorded during the dry season for conductivity, salinity, turbidity, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, faecal coliform counts, temperature, total dissolved solids. This is because during the wet season the increased volume of water apparently diluted the concentration of abattoir wastes.

The work was carried out in order to establish the existing levels of the measured parameters and assess the pollution profile of the Creek as a result of abattoir operations.

This is the first time a holistic research has been conducted on Woji Creek. The paper has provided data and knowledge on which further research can be carried out to monitor changes in water quality caused by the activities of the abattoir operators.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study in developing a cost-effective meat supply chain network design aiming to minimizing the total cost of transportation, the number of transportation vehicles and the delivery time of meat products. The developed model was also used for determining the optimum numbers and allocations of farms and abattoirs that need to be established and the optimal quantity flow of livestock from farms to abattoirs and meat products from abattoirs to retailers.

A multi-objective possibilistic programming model was formulated with a focus on minimizing the total cost of transportation, the number of transportation vehicles and the delivery time of meat products. Three sets of Pareto solutions were obtained using the three different solution methods. These methods are the LP-metrics method, the ɛ-constraint method and the weighted Tchebycheff method, respectively. The TOPSIS method was used for seeking a best Pareto solution as a trade-off decision when optimizing the three conflicting objectives.

A case study was also applied for examining the effectiveness and applicability of the developed multi-objective model and the proposed solution methods. The research concludes that the ɛ-constraint method has the superiority over the other two proposed methods as it offers a better solution outcome.

This work addresses as interesting avenues for further research on exploring the delivery planner under different types of uncertainties and transportation means. Also, environmentalism has been increasingly becoming a significant global problem in the present century. Thus, the presented model could be extended to include the environmental aspects as an objective function.

The developed design methodology can be utilized for food supply chain designers. Also, it could be applied to realistic problems in the field of supply chain management.

The paper presents a methodology that can be used for tackling a multi-objective optimization problem of a meat supply chain network design. The proposed optimization method has the potential in solving the similar issue providing a compromising solution due to conflicting objectives in which each needs to be achieved toward an optimum outcome to survive in the competitive sector of food supply chains network.

This paper aims to make an empirical contribution by investigating the enforcement mechanisms and governance structures required to protect and govern a regional food product when public certification fails. As one of the recent additions to South Africa’s repertoire of products with a designated origin, Karoo Lamb made for an interesting case study.

A conjoint analysis was conducted to elicit the farmers’ preferred enforcement mechanisms to protect the authenticity of the Karoo Lamb product. The investigation, furthermore, draws on survey data collected among 73 farmers, five abattoirs, two processors/packers and five retail outlets to evaluate the governance structures of the Karoo Lamb supply chain.

The results indicate that due to failed public certification that is governed by market-like structures, Karoo Lamb is better off being governed by hierarchical structures. These structures are expected to allow for a stronger focus on stricter enforcement mechanisms.

At the farm level, the Karoo Lamb supply chain requires better enforcement mechanisms to protect the unique attributes of origin and taste to ensure the authenticity of Karoo Lamb. This change towards stricter enforcement requires more hierarchical structures to allow for private or mutual enforcement mechanisms.

This paper contributes empirically to the governance structure knowledge base by analysing the enforcement mechanisms and governance structures needed to enforce and protect, the quality and origin standards of a region of origin product, Karoo Lamb, in South Africa.

Hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) systems facilitate a preventative and systematic approach to control food safety hazards through critical control points (CCPs). Hazards are prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels. The regulated South African abattoir hygiene management system (HMS) has adopted HACCP principles. Control points (CPs) represent the central feature of control within the HMS. However, there are no guidelines to conduct hazard analysis within the HMS. There is also no guideline to identify CPs. The purpose of this paper is to present a hazard analysis methodology that may be used at South African abattoirs to overcome these shortcomings.

A review of SANS 10330:2007 (HACCP) and the regulated HMS standards was undertaken. A generic HACCP plan was developed for a hypothetical bovine processing abattoir. A proposed hazard analysis methodology was used to analyse generic hazards to determine its significance. Thereafter, CCPs were identified using the CCP decision tree. This was done to enable meaningful comparison between HACCP-based CCPs and HMS-based CPs. The hazard analysis methodology suggested by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) namely, the two dimensional health risk assessment model used to assess the significance of food safety hazards was used as a benchmark.

The management of CPs in a HMS plan is similar to control contemplated in a HACCP plan. It was found that regulated CPs are not specifically stated as CPs, they need to be identified. Also, not all regulated CPs addressed the significant hazards that were identified using the proposed methodology in this paper. Managing only regulated CPs in the HMS plan may likely offer limited control over hazards. Therefore, hazards analysis is important to identify significant hazards and in turn, CPs that provide more comprehensive control within the HMS in addition to exercising control using only regulated CPs. It was observed that there are no decision criteria available to identify CPs, unlike HACCP. It was proposed that because CPs are defined similar to CCPs, that the CCP decision tree be used to identify CPs.

A hazard analysis methodology was proposed to develop the HMS as well as steps towards its development. A decision guideline was also presented to facilitate extracting CPs from regulations. Important definitions lacking in regulations, and relating to the HMS, have also been proposed in this paper. More robust HMSs may be developed by identifying regulated CPs as well as identifying them through hazard analysis.

The Canadian lamb industry is small compared to lamb industries in many other countries and the supply chain for lamb is weak and fragmented. Without improvements in the flow of information, product quality and continuity of supply, the formal supply chain in Canada may collapse and Canadian lamb will become a local cottage industry with the retail chain and institutional markets serviced by offshore suppliers. Examines one of the key interfaces in the Canadian lamb supply chain. Conjoint analysis is used to assess the attitudes of the major commercial buyers of lambs ‐ abbatoirs and producer marketing groups ‐ towards key attributes of the lamb supply chain. The relative importance of a number of characteristics are assessed: a regular supplier, the basis of payment, reduced handling of lambs from farm to abattoir and the price paid for the lambs.

A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to establish the current market requirements for lamb and those likely in the future. Two questionnaires were produced and sent to the largest lamb abattoirs and retailers in the UK. Current markets generally require a carcass of weight 16‐21kg, conformation E‐R and fat score 2 or 3L. The forecast for future requirements was not clear, but some respondents expressed a desire to narrow the specification ranges given and also to increasingly use carcasses heavier than 21kg to supply bone‐less lamb. A two market scenario, one for medium sized lambs to supply bone‐in cuts and the other for heavier, lean carcasses to supply the boneless lamb, may develop in the long term. The results of this study form a useful basis on which to decide on suitable objectives for genetic improvement programs for sheep breeds, which can be used to help lamb producers meet the requirements of current and likely future markets.

In this paper, the authors investigated a proposed radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based meat supply chain to monitor quality and safety of meat products we purchase from supermarkets. The supply chain consists of farms, abattoirs and retailers. The purpose of this paper is to determine a cost-effective trade-off decision obtained from a developed multi-criteria optimization model based on three objectives. These objectives include customer satisfaction in percentage of product quantity as requested by customers, product quality in numbers of meat products and the total implementation cost. Furthermore, this work was aimed at determining the number and locations of farms and abattoirs that should be established and quantities of products that need to be transported between entities of the proposed supply chain.

To this aim, a tri-criteria optimization model was developed. The considered criteria were used for minimizing the total implementation cost and maximizing customer satisfaction and product quality. In order to obtain Pareto solutions based on the developed model, four solution approaches were employed. Subsequently, a new decision-making algorithm was developed to select the superior solution approach in terms of values of the three criteria.

A case study was applied to examine the applicability of the developed model and the performance of the proposed solution approaches. The computational results proved the applicability of the developed model in obtaining a trade-off among the considered criteria and solving the RFID-based meat supply chain design problem.

The developed tri-criteria optimization model can be used by decision makers as an aid to design and optimize food supply chains.

This paper presents a development of first, a cost-effective optimization approach for a proposed RFID-based meat supply chain seeking a trade-off among three conflicting criteria; and second, a new decision-making algorithm which can be used for any multi-criteria problem to select the best Pareto solution.

Continual improvement within management systems is essential to ensure the continued relevance of implemented systems and to mitigate stagnant and ineffective systems. South African abattoir managers utilise a regulated food safety system called the hygiene management system (HMS) to manage the safe processing of meat. The extent to which the HMS supports continual improvement is not clear as there is no specific requirement to demonstrate continual improvement within implemented systems. The aim of this paper is to provide this clarification by developing a framework of compliance criteria for continual improvement (CI) benchmarking the ISO 9000 series.

This study attempted to provide this clarification by developing a framework of compliance criteria for continual improvement (CI) benchmarking the ISO 9000 series. Thereafter the HMS requirements were assessed against these criteria to determine whether or not any gaps existed within the HMS requirements in support of continual improvement. This study adopted a qualitative approach where a review of standards formed the basis of the study.

This study demonstrates that the HMS is designed to support process stability. Further, the HMS requirements are sufficient to facilitate management of meat safety at abattoirs. However there are important gaps within the HMS in support of prevention as a means of continual improvement. The author postulates likely consequences of such gaps during implementation and management of the HMS.

This study emphasises the importance of fundamental principles in quality management underpinning basic improvement mechanisms of corrective and preventative action towards improvement. It also provides a basis for further empirical research into the extent to which improvement is made within implemented HMSs at abattoirs.