It is the government’s vision to upgrade the Public Abattoir from the present ‘average’ establishment to become a trend setter in the local meat industry and thereby becoming a showcase for quality in Maltese products.
In order to achieve this vision, the Government is investing in the facility’s premises, equipment as well as human resources (through training, proper procedures, monitoring and enforcement) and quality control. Through such investment, the facility shall be transformed into a showcase where third parties can, through site and/or study visits) gain knowledge about the meat processing industry, hygiene standards etc. Thereby, the government seeks to enhance the value added of Maltese meat products giving the consumers the opportunity of experiencing high quality standards, increasing the consumption of local meats as compared to the imported product.
Over the past years, substantial investment in the facility’s infrastructure has already been made, whilst various works are still ongoing in order to transform the Public Abattoir in line with the Government’s vision.
New changing facilities for the facility’s staff have been built and have been/are in the process of being equipped, to ensure separation between different sections of the abattoir’s staff and butchers as well as between butchers working in different sections of the abattoir to thereby eliminate any possibility of cross contamination.
A new silt-trap was built to separate and filter the drainage, particularly coming out from the slaughter lines, before going out to the main sewage system. By re-positioning the silt-trap, the main drainage system of the Abattoir was overhauled completely to channel all residues to the new silt-trap. These works were undertaken through the new Fish Market project since a substantial area from the Abattoir was taken to make way for the building of this project.
As part of the refurbishing programme both slaughter lines and other parts within the Abattoir, were ‘cleaned’ from old obsolete network of pipes and other unusable services from walls and ceilings to make way for further refurbishing projects.
Work was also undertaken on the overhaul of the lairages – the areas where animals brought to the abattoir are received and inspected for animal welfare issues and hygiene – to ensure adequate and welcoming facilities, finished to the highest hygiene standards, for both the animals to be slaughtered and the livestock-breeders who bring them over. Upgrading works were completed for the bovine lairages during 2014, while work on the swine lairages is ongoing, with the first of two lairages for swine having welcomed the first heads during April 2015.
Other projects include the installation of Vaporizer & LPG storage tanks; Slaughter lines drainage system; Reverse Osmosis filtration system; New laundry; Refurbishment in the Power room; Asbestos roofs removal; New Stores; Maintenance workshop and New surface on all Public Abattoir Internal roads.