Assessment of compliance with sanitary, physicochemical, and animal welfare requirements of slaughterhouses supplying meat and meat products purchased by federal education institutes
Sustainable Development. Animal Welfare. Meat Products. Food Safety. Competitive Bidding.
The environmental and social impacts of animal-derived food production are the subjects of intense debate. Ensuring responsible consumption and production through the guarantee of sustainable production and consumption standards is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and promoting sustainable public procurement practices is among the targets to be achieved by 2030. The acquisition of food by public institutions represents a significant portion of the purchases made by government agencies, with substantial impacts across various sectors of society. Understanding the origin of the foods acquired by public institutions and obtaining information about their production processes from the initial stages is crucial for promoting responsible consumption and production through public procurement. This study aims to evaluate the compliance with sanitary, physicochemical, and animal welfare requirements of slaughterhouses supplying Meat and Meat Products (MMP) to the Federal Institutes of Education of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). To this end, a documentary, observational, and cross-sectional study was conducted by collecting data from official documents regarding CPC purchases made by IFRN through public procurement processes during the years 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, as well as documents related to the infractions of the slaughterhouses identified in the bids through the database of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (MAPA). Data from 9 bidding minutes were obtained, totaling 11 different types of CPC from 19 slaughterhouses, including 11 large and 8 medium-sized ones, resulting in 577 infractions during the evaluated period—62% were sanitary infractions, 8% physicochemical, and 30% animal welfare infractions. Among the CPC acquired, fresh poultry was the most purchased, with approximately 26,000 kg, followed by canned fish and fresh beef, with 18,687 kg and 13,311 kg, respectively. The data obtained in this study show that 58% of the slaughterhouses from which the MMP acquired by the IFRN originated had some type of infraction during the analyzed years.