Remote meat control in slaughter and game handling
The Swedish Food Agency (SFA) is modernising meat inspection. Our goal is to create a legal flexibility in the European Union for performing meat inspection in slaughter and game handling with digital devices at a distance. On this page, you can read more about the Remote Meat Control project.
An official veterinarian from the SFA inspects all domestic animals and farmed game slaughtered in commercial abattoirs on-site both before and after slaughter. Wild game are inspected after slaughter at game handling establishment. In some cases, an official auxiliary can perform inspection after slaughter, but final responsibility is always on the official veterinarian.
Remote meat control means that the official veterinarian inspects the animal before slaughter (ante mortem inspection) and the carcass with organs after slaughter (post mortem inspection) by digital devices at a remote place, off-site. The trained technical support person, employed by abattoir, streams by a mobile phone images and sounds in real time to the official veterinarian. The official veterinarian is receiving the information on personal computer or mobile phone on remote location. The official veterinarian instructs the technical support person via mobile phone about the practical steps in the ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection. The results are documented as usual in SFA database and communicated with the abattoir and game handling establishment according to the routine procedure.
To make the usage of digital devices on remote basis as a flexible alternative, the control regulations at the European Union level must get complementary flexibility. The results from our Remote Meat Control project can be used to achieve the changes needed. Our goal is to create ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection flexibility for low-capacity abattoirs and game handling establishments in remote areas.
Background to the project
The majority, 81 percent, of abattoirs and game handling establishments in Sweden are small processing less than 1,000 livestock units per year (LU, one unit = on cattle or five pigs or ten sheep) producing 2 -3 percent of the total amount of LU in Sweden. Many of these food business operators are active only during certain periods of the year, and often only a few days a week depending on, among other things, the availability of animals, weather conditions, permitted hunting times, and demand from customers. Therefore, many of the food business operators find it difficult to anticipate and plan their activities, which in turn affects the need of ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection they may have regarding the current need for the presence of an official veterinarian on-site.
There is documented lack of official veterinarian staff and the working environment can be very demanding. Travels to and from facilities are many and often long for control staff. The difficulty of planning in some cases involves short notice from the food business operators. The travelling has a negative environmental effect and creates a situation where the SFA may find it difficult to conduct cost-effective control. The control can be difficult to adapt in time to the needs for control, hamper the food business operators flow giving logistic and economic consequences.
According to current regulations, the official veterinarian must be present on-site at the abattoir or game handling establishment, or where the animals are in emergency slaughter or in slaughter at the holding of provenance in order to carry out the ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection at the abattoir or game handling establishment. Therefore, before remote control can be introduced EU rules need to be expanded with complementary flexibility for these new technics.
Possible benefits of remote control
Easier to meet needs at short notice
Small abattoirs and game handling establishments often need inspection at short notice, which the SFA, with documented shortage of official veterinarian staff, may have difficulties in planning. With remote control through digital technology, food business operators would be given better opportunities to be able to get ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection at short notice. This applies not least to abattoirs in sparsely populated areas where the travel time for control staff today is often long.
A tool for achieving the goals of Agenda 2030
The development of remote ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection will contribute to achieve the climate and sustainability goals in the international UN-program Agenda 2030 and European Union’s Green Deal developing control into a more environmentally sustainable business. Reduced travel back and forth to abattoirs and game handling establishments reduces the impact on the environment.
Better planning and working environment for employees at the SFA
There is a documented lack of veterinarians in Sweden and this shortage is reflected in lack of official veterinarian staff in meat control. With remote ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection, the SFA could plan its staffing better, not least in times of low staffing, for example, in the event of illness. In addition, less valuable working time would be spent on transportation. During winter time the darkness, snow and cold weather can cause difficult traffic conditions and higher risk for accidents on the roads. An improved working environment for the control staff in the form of reduced travel time by car is an advantage.
Better quality in control
Digital technologies make it easier to teach, calibrate the staff as well as develop both ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection. Many judgements in meat inspection can be very subjective. Some findings are more difficult than others to judge. Digital devises create a possibility for the official veterinarian to get a second opinion in difficult cases. SFA can already make calibration in more quick and precise manner using digital devices in real time. The goal is to work continuously for getting the SFA’s control staff to perform controls in a uniform way. Younger colleagues doing simultaneous ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection together with an experienced official veterinarian can be trained before working independently.
The Swedish Food Agency as a driving competent authority
The SFA is convinced that there are motives to work for the EU rules to be developed so that remote ante mortem inspection and post mortem inspection becomes possible. Sweden has already taken such initiatives. Development of control with the help of digital tools is ongoing in several different places in the world, including in Sweden, and the SFA is a leading governmental agency in this respect.
Study of methods for digital inspection after slaughter
The SFA initiated and financed a study 2019 that developed and tested a method for post mortem inspection by using digital imaging and sound transmission. The study performed by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) showed that:
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Post mortem inspection of pigs can be performed using a standard smart mobile phone of good quality mounted on the hand.
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Approximately 2–3 Mbit/s bandwidth is required for the technology to work.
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The technology is reliable when inspecting after slaughter and is about as good as on-site inspection.
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The technology does not appear to affect the probability of documenting the findings in the carcass and associated organs during post mortem inspections.
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No clear negative consequences for food safety, animal health, or animal welfare could be demonstrated when the technology was used in post mortem inspections.
The work continues
Since 2021 the SFA has been working to develop a model for remote control in slaughter and game handling. The model will create an overall picture of where, when, and how remote control can be used while maintaining food safety, animal health and animal protection. In addition, the system must be financially defensible with high level of IT-security.
More testing on-site has been performed in different small abattoirs in the country. General attitudes to remote meat control amongst official veterinarians, heads of the control, abattoirs, and game handling establishments have been studied both qualitatively and quantitatively. Co-operations are done together with SLU and the Research Institutes of Sweden (rise.se).
Scientific publications
In order to be able to develop EU legislation, information and results about the work need to be disseminated in several ways, including through scientific publications. When the European Commission works as a risk manager, it turns to its risk-assessing sister authority the EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) to obtain scientific support. The EFSA does its work by studying published scientific literature. Therefore, it is of great importance that all work that is done is published regularly in peer reviewed journals.
Co-operation for developing Risk based meat safety assurance system
The work in 2024
During 2024, we have worked further on collecting data from digital meat control. Four veterinary students from SLU have completed their final degree projects partly with a prototype of an electronic nose, partly with continued remote control of animals and carcasses using video via mobile phone. The results are still promising, and publication work is ongoing. Communication has taken place internally via the Intranet and externally, among other things, with the Swedish Board of Agriculture, which is the competent authority for animal health and animal welfare, also in slaughtering and game handling.
Continued work within the EU during 2025
In 2025, we look forward to participating in the work of various groups within the EU. Publication takes place regularly and works are presented in accordance with Article 6 of (EU) 2019/627 in terms of informing the Commission and other Member States. We have presented the Remote Meat Control project to the EU's Central Veterinary Officers (CVO) at a monthly meeting in February 2023 during the Swedish Presidency.
We are now working on the basic document stating the conditions where and when remote meat control could be a suitable alternative as part of flexibility in meat control within the EU.
The work at EU level is represented by the government. The Swedish Food Agency assists the government in this work within its area of responsibility.
Publications from the project
Livsmedelsverket. Kautto, A., Holstein, F. & Medin I., 2025.
Remote control in slaughter and game handling – economic analysis
