The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment stressed in Horta the high level of compliance of regional slaughterhouses with the quality standards for carcasses of slaughtered animals.

The values of analyses are provided in a timely way to meat producers, Luís Neto Viveiros said, stressing that the PH values in the carcasses exceeded 6 and were residual. They do not jeopardise the safety of consumers, but deserve the attention of official services.

Speaking at the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly, the Regional Secretary assured that the Government of the Azores will "continue to trigger all the necessary mechanisms" with producers, slaughterhouses and traders in order to ensure good practices and provide the meat sector with all the conditions to achieve the best results, mainly through the ongoing public investment in the regional network of slaughterhouses.

Luís Neto Viveiros recalled that the Council of the Government has recently approved the launch of the tender for the construction of the new slaughterhouse on Graciosa, thus completing the regional network of slaughterhouses.

Besides this work, there are ongoing tenders for this year, representing a global investment of nearly 15 million Euros that will contribute to the promotion and enhancement of Azorean meat.

The tender regarding the improvement works of S. Miguel Slaughterhouse is ongoing, while the construction of new slaughter infrastructure on Faial is in the final phase of proposal analysis.

By the end of the year, the Government will also launch the tender for the improvement works of Terceira Slaughterhouse.

These four contract works fall within the policies to promote the Region's export capacity, through the consolidation of the infrastructures for the delivery of animals, cutting, processing, and preparation of meat products.

Neto Viveiros reiterated the Government's full availability to provide reports to the Legislative Assembly on the results recorded in regional slaughterhouses, particularly those concerning registered PH values and the identification of their causes.

Between January and September 11 this year, there were no non-conformities registered in Faial Slaughterhouse, while in S. Miguel Slaughterhouse the occurrences were less than three percent, stressed the Regional Secretary.

In the case of Terceira Slaughterhouse, there were only 7.4% of slaughtered carcasses with PH values higher than the default value, as opposed to the results of a Master's thesis that was written in 2013 during a three-month period.

Taking into consideration the slaughter of PGI meat - cattle which, due to the handling conditions, is more subject to the effects of transport stress - the percentage registered by Pico slaughterhouse is at 10%. This situation deserves the attention of services in order the meat from losing its best features.

The final handling of animals and the transport conditions to the slaughterhouse are factors that can influence animal welfare and, consequently, this indicator; the latter can cause changes to the colour, texture and durability of the meat.

As we had already stated at the parliamentary committee on this matter, in addition to the ongoing public investment in infrastructures, the Agrarian Development Services and technicians from slaughterhouses have carried out a proximity and awareness-raising work in order to support producers in the implementation of practices that can reduce the factors causing this type of changes in the meat.

Luís Neto Viveiros recalled that health issues are not a concern in this case, but rather the improvement of the quality of Azorean meat. In this context, the government official pointed out that slaughterhouses timely provide the analysis results to producers. Operators have the possibility to use meat with lower commercial value in the preparation of processed products.