As a Regulatory Company, South African Meat Industry Company (SAMIC) started out ensuring beef, small stock and pork carcasses are correctly described and classified according to the Agricultural Products Standards Act, 119 of 1990, and its amended Regulation regarding the classification and marking of meat intended for sale in South Africa.
All registered abattoirs are subjected to at least ten unscheduled audits per year to ensure that classification standards are applied consistently and on a continuous basis. Deviations from the standards have been decreasing steadily over the years, with inexperienced meat classifiers usually to blame for mistakes. SAMIC addresses this problem by hosting refresher inspection courses for classifiers at abattoirs where the deviations have been more than six percent.
Since 2006, the South African Meat Industry Company role has been expanded to also include brand auditing of Quality Indication Marks registered by the Department of Agriculture. Amongst others, these include Quality Indication Marks registered by major retailers, such as Pick n Pay Free Range Lamb, Woolworths Kinder to Sows, as well as private labels, such as Certified South African Wagyu Beef, Fair Game Wild Life Friendly Products, Groot Karoo Natural Lamb and Oak Valley Free Range Acorn Fed Pork.
For traceability purposes, Quality Indication Marks are audited throughout the supply chain, from farms to feedlots, abattoirs, deboning plants and sales outlets, to ensure the integrity of these brands.
Beef production in South Africa has a rich heritage, with cattle being used in the past and even today for different reasons in various cul...