The conditions for red meat shipments sit in two regulations: the Regulation on Specific Hygiene Rules for Food of Animal Origin covers the temperature of the product, and the Food Hygiene Regulation covers the vehicle.
| Product | Internal temperature at most | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Offal | 3 °C | 17 |
| Carcass and cut meat | 7 °C | 17 |
| Mince | 2 °C | 31 |
| Meat preparations | 4 °C | 31 |
Meat has to reach this temperature before carriage and stay there all the way; a refrigerated vehicle keeps meat cold rather than cooling it. Mince and preparations may instead be frozen to -18 °C or below, and that condition also holds in storage and carriage. The one exception is for making special products: with the Ministry's permission the meat leaves the slaughterhouse, or the cutting plant on the same site, at once and carriage takes no longer than 2 hours.
Open meat and packed meat travel separately; the same vehicle may be used where separation in time, or by packaging and loading arrangement, leaves no source of contamination. Vehicles and containers are kept clean and in good repair, built so they can be cleaned and disinfected when needed, hold the food at a suitable temperature and allow that temperature to be monitored (Food Hygiene Regulation, Article 13).
Write the limits into the shipping instruction with their article numbers, so it is clear what to update if the regulation changes. Before loading, the measured product temperature, the vehicle record and the lot details sit in one file.
