Carcass stamping to go to factories

A TRANSFER of responsibility for stamping of carcasses to meat factory operators on October 1 next is expected to pave the way for the Department of Agriculture to cut the cost of its 500 staff employed in the factories.

The Department recently notified factory operators of the change, which includes factories taking responsibility for BSE testing.

The Department is likely to follow up by releasing staff at agricultural officer level to begin taking over the duties of the temporary vets who carry out remote and postmortem veterinary inspections.