10.—(1) When a sheep or goat is slaughtered in a slaughterhouse or slaughtered elsewhere and brought to a slaughterhouse, the occupier of the slaughterhouse must remove all specified risk material, other than the spinal cord, as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter and in any event before post-mortem inspection.
(2) In the case of a sheep or goat aged over 12 months at slaughter, or which has a permanent incisor erupted through the gum, the occupier of the slaughterhouse must as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter—
(a)remove the spinal cord at the slaughterhouse before the post-mortem inspection; or
(b)send the meat to a cutting plant authorised under paragraph 13(1)(b); or
(c)in accordance with the first paragraph of point 13 of Part A of Annex XI of the Community TSE Regulation send the meat to a cutting plant in Great Britain or, where the Food Standards Agency has entered into a written agreement with the competent authority of the receiving member State and the dispatch is in accordance with that agreement, to a cutting plant in a member State.
(3) In sub-paragraph (2)(c), “cutting plant” means premises—
(a)approved or conditionally approved as such under Article 31(2) of Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules(1); or
(b)operating as such under Article 4(5) of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin(2) pending such approval.
(4) Contravention of this paragraph is an offence.
()O.J. No. L 165, 30.4.2004, p.1. The revised text of Regulation (EC) No.882/2004 is now set out in Corrigendum (O.J. No. L191, 28.5.2004, p.1)
()O.J. No. L 139, 30.4.2004, p. 55. The revised text of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 is now set out in a Corrigendum (O.J. No. L226, 25.6.2004, p.22)