Food hygiene at the Rungis Market

The world’s largest wholesale market for fresh produce is exemplary regarding of food hygiene.

The veterinary services have a permanent office at the Market and further vouch for the impeccable quality of the products ; their action complement the health and safety certificates issued to companies.
Concerning the buildings, Semmaris has undertaken a major investment programme aimed at eliminating any risk of chilled-chain interruption.

For meat products, these investments concerned the tripe and meat pavilions and part of the poultry pavilion. The two pavilions devoted to dairy products were also modernized, and the seafood pavilion was completely renovated.
A workshop to process game meat was built to inspect wild game arriving directly from hunting venues.

Even though the health requirements differ from those for animal products, various improvements were made to the fruit and vegetable pavilions to display the products under better conditions, sheltered from bad weather.
As regards the products per se, the veterinary services carry out the necessary daily controls in the tenants' units.

Through the health and safety certificate issued by the authorities, each company makes a specific commitment on the following points: :

• To have well-maintained, clean premises: premises complying with standards, a cleaning plan, to purchase performing cleaning equipment. For cutting premises: cleaning, disinfection with efficiency test by surface sample analyses
• Respecting chilled-chain: temperature reader for every refrigerated room, temperature control procedure upon taking delivery and management of non conformities, staff awareness through appropriate training, thermal insulation, improved cold output, refrigerated inbound/outbound platforms for animal products.
• Product traceability: manual or computer records of the manufacturer’s batch number or use-by-date, allocation of batch number for inventory management

Trade associations or the larger companies also have quality officers to prevent any such problems.

Workshop to process game meat

Innovation and regulations

Following both changes in regulations and the decree of 2 August 1995 aimed at stronger sanitary control of wild game meat in all distribution circuits, the companies asked for a dedicated, 600m² game meat processing workshop.
With 600m² of floor space, the workshop includes a 200 m² renovated section, and a 400 m² extension, built to process large game meat. The ‘small game’ section includes reception, storage and packaging facilities and rooms reserved for testing, packaging and hygiene. The ‘large game’ section, entirely fitted with handling racks, includes reception, examination, consignment, storage and registration facilities. Three unloading docks have been installed.

Compliance with standards

The reception service includes a conformity check (method of transport, temperature, visual aspect, etc.) and controls the paperwork. The veterinary services then conduct a thorough examination of the game meat accepted. This systematic control, validated by conformity markings, serves to record the meat’s passage through an approved centre, while guaranteeing the quality of any products sold. A traceability system has been implemented to track the product at every stage of distribution. The entire centre is obviously temperature-controlled with lower temperatures at reception to refrigerate the game hunted locally.

The workshop functions according to HACCP procedures, which define circuits, treatment procedures, methods and hygiene rules. This processing centre is a key support to the wild game sector because it allows the sale of quality products that are safe from a health viewpoint. The creation of this building, decided by the wholesalers and managed by Semmaris, is a sign of the Poultry and Game trade’s determination to actively help modernize the Rungis Market and strengthen its brand image .

The sanitary traceability of game meat at Rungis

By the director of the Val de Marne veterinary service

What are the obligations relating to the sale of game meat ?
The origin of any game meat is highly traceable. The pieces must be rapidly refrigerated. The dead animals’ temperature is reduced at the collection centre, which is the first tracking point. The game is also eviscerated there, a process which should exclude any health risk in the meat. Afterwards, the veterinary inspection is conducted at the processing centre, along with any work on the pieces, such as skinning, special cuts, etc. All this must be done within twenty-four hours, and forty-eight hours after the animal’s death. The Rungis International Market’s new sorting centre is therefore a processing centre. This is really useful for the industry, because it offers the clientele a guarantee of products that are healthy, and verified as such.

What are some reasons for rejection by the veterinary services ?
Clearly, the animal must be healthy in the first place. Contamination can have many sources, such as a refrigeration problem, poor evisceration or shot. Similarly, old wounds can result in meat fever. Finally, there are ‘traditional’ game diseases, such as tuberculosis in deer, or trichinosis in wild boar. There is therefore a twenty-four hour consignment period before delivery to the sale room, to allow the time to test for these diseases.