“Regional brands, if researched and planned, can create new business opportunities”

• Home
• News
• Quality Standard Mark
  • Quality Standard beef
  • Quality Standard lamb
  • Quality Standard veal
  • The Red Tractor scheme
• Cutting specifications
• Diary dates
• Promotional Material
• Recipes
• Resources
• Contacts
• Links

login: password: 
Remember password?

 [Close] 

Quality Standard lamb

There are currently no legal requirements limiting the age of sheep slaughtered for human consumption.
The EBLEX Quality Standard scheme for lamb, however, limits the age and status of the animals allowed into the scheme, and places additional requirements on the processing of lamb during certain times of the year.
Again, as in the case of beef, these requirements reflect current scientific knowledge, particularly the role that age at slaughter and seasonality play in the eating quality of lamb.

The relevant standards are:

• Females must have no permanent incisors and neither have been used for breeding or preganant i.e. nulliparous and not pregnant.
• Castrated and entire males must have no permanent incisors.
• Carcases of any acceptable animal slaughtered during the period from 1 January through to 30 April of any year, and born before 1 October of the previous year must be subjected to one of the maturation processes specified in the MLC Lamb Blueprint (MLC, 1994). These include high voltage electrical stimulation and/or hip suspension and/or maturation. Maturation should be for a minimum of ten days between slaughter and sale to the final consumer.
  

By specifying Quality Standard lamb, caterers can be confident they will be provided with a more consistent quality
product with the potential for improved and more consistent eating quality.

[site map]