The fourth revision of a regulation governing hog slaughtering was passed at the State Council’s executive meeting on May 19, 2021, and will go into effect on Aug 1, 2021, according to a State Council decree signed by Premier Li Keqiang.

Aimed at enhancing management of hog slaughtering, ensuring quality of pork products and safeguarding people’s health, the revision stipulated designating sites for hog slaughtering, collective pork inspection and quarantine.

No institutions or people should slaughter hogs at sites other than the designated ones, except for individuals in rural areas for their own food, according to the regulation.

The State Council departments in charge of agriculture and rural affairs should govern the nationwide hog-slaughtering industry, while related departments at county governments and above should supervise and govern hog slaughtering within their administrative area, according to the regulation.

The country encourages integrated development of pig breeding, slaughtering, processing, distributing and selling, promotes standardized slaughtering, and supports the construction of a cold-chain transportation and delivery system, it said.

Related departments at county governments and above should set up credit record files for designated hog slaughtering sites, record results of daily supervision, inspection as well as investigation and punishment of unlawful acts, and notify the public.

An entry check and registration system must be established at the sites to verify pigs’ inspection certificates and information, record sources, amount numbers, certificate details of the pigs, keep and preserve the records for at least two years. Pork leaving the sites should also be recorded, according to the revision.

The sites need to carry out strict checks and management of pork quality and ban unchecked or unqualified pork products to leave the sites, it added.

Local government should ensure enough veterinarians are appointed and provided to the sites for checks and quarantine.

The sites should be responsible for quality and safety of its products and suspend production once problems are found, and they should immediately report to related departments, notify sellers or agents, and call back any sold products. Measures should be taken to properly process the recalled products and prohibit them from reentering the market, the regulation said.

A hog-slaughtering risk monitoring project will be launched by the State Council’s related departments to watch all slaughtering links, the regulation said, requiring them to enhance daily monitoring and checks over hog-slaughtering activities, and build and improve a random check mechanism.

Violation of the regulation will be given instructions to make corrections and receive warnings, and those refusing to make corrections will have to stop business for rectification and get fined. In severe cases, the designated certificate will be revoked.