What is the Slaughter HACCP process?

• A. Slaughter is the process whereby healthy, live animals are humanely stunned, bled, de-hided, dehaired, and eviscerated
• B. Slaughter is the drying and curing of products to achieve shelf stability
• C. Slaughter is the grinding and injecting of solutions into meat to create non intact products
• D. Slaughter is the heat treatment used to produce shelf-stable meats

Answer: (A)

In this stage of the process, the focus is on the initial handling of a live animal and turning it into a carcass suitable for further processing, while controlling hazards at this critical point. The description that fits best is humane stunning to render the animal unconscious, followed by bleeding, removal of the hide, dehairing as needed, and evisceration. These steps define the slaughter phase because they transform a live animal into a carcass and establish the starting point for subsequent processing steps under HACCP.

The other descriptions describe activities that occur after slaughter—drying and curing to make shelf-stable products, grinding and injecting solutions to create non-intact products, or heat treatment to produce shelf-stable meats. These are processing or preservation steps that come later, not the slaughter stage.