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Wool is a natural fiber and considered as renewable, sustainable and environmental friendly. It is capable to keep the body warm and can be utilized as casual bears and also in formal bears and provide comfort to the human body in both of the active and passive situations. So to maintain a standard quality of wool for fabric development it is utmost important to test the wool fiber for certain qualities. Testing of wool fiber is also important to retain the unique physical and chemical properties of wool which makes this fiber versatile. Fiber quality is in real sense is a set of characteristics and defects in the fleece; both inherited and acquired, which influence its end use. The term quality testing includes a process of critical examination of material to draw the information’s related to qualitative or quantitative aspects of wool fibers. There are number of standard test procedures are in prevalence but most commonly followed test procedures for wool are American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), British standards, Indian Standard Institution (ISI) or International Wool Textile Organization (IWTO) etc.

Shearing is an operation of clipping the wool from sheep body. It is essential to get the wool from animals as well as to provide comfort to the sheep and enhance the economic status of sheep farm. The time of shearing is twice in a year preferably once at beginning of summer (march-April) and second at the start of winter (September – October). However, for veterinary reasons and other requirements of animals, shearing can be performed any time.

Wool is a fibre basically composed of amino acids and have excellent absorbency, moisture regain capacity, tend to warm the human body if used in form of cloths and others, good in elasticity and resiliency but poor in resistance to alkali but acid tolerance is good. To get better utilization of wool, they may be classified into various categories based on their origin, fleece quality, fineness of wool fibres etc.

Wool is a thick and wavy animal fiber makes fibrinous protective covering of sheep. There are 170 different types of proteins are found in wool but the major and foremost protein is keratin. It is insoluble in nature and forms most of the part of wool. True wool fiber is basically modified hair that is not shed like the hair of most farm animals and medulla is absent in true wool. Wool contains excessively scaly surface but hair surface is mostly smooth, less elastic. The matured keratinized fiber extruding above the skin is considered dead tissue. Wool fiber is basically originated from follicle situated in dermis or middle layer of skin. Wool fiber is elastic, hygroscopic, retains warmness, durable, non inflammable and transmits ultra-violet light.

India is one of the chief carpet wool producing and exporting countries of the world. A large quantity of carpet wool is exported to the developed countries. Wool production in Indian subcontinent is mainly dependant on distinct type of sheep producing wool in a particular geographical area. For example small and course wool is produced by Bikaneri breed in North Western India, course wool by Deccani breed and hair type breed by Mandya breed in Peninsular India and fine wool is produced in Himalayan region. In general, tropical breeds of sheep are mainly producing course wool which is highly suitable for carpet manufacture. Most of the Indian sheep breeds are producing low fleece yield. The annual total yield of greasy wool is in the range of 1-1.5 Kg. Overall great quantity of wool is produced in southern hemisphere but consumption is in northern hemisphere.

Animal Fibers                   The animal materials like wool, hair, fur, mohair and silk used for weaving, knitting or felting into a fabric are                                                      generally termed as animal fibers. Animals used for the purpose are sheep, goat, llama, alpaca, camel, vicuna                                                and silk worm.

The sanitation word is derived from a Latin word sanitas, meaning “health.” In true sense sanitation is the creation and maintenance of hygiene and healthful conditions in abattoir or meat processing plant. So that produced food provides full nutrients with minimal contaminations and hazards to the human health. It creates the aesthetic environment in the workplace which ultimately enhances the work efficiency and satisfaction to the workers. It helps in maintenance of clean environment, less pollution, proper waste disposal and improves ecological balance. It is a prerequisite of food safety, good hygienic practices and total quality management.

Abattoir is a structure meant to recover the edible portions of slaughtered animals for human consumption. These structures are used to cater the need of domestic purposes as well as some of them are utilized for export purposes. The demand of Indian meat and meat products is increasing day by day not only in our country but also around the globe. Therefore, millions (about 15 million cattle and buffalo and 1 million sheep and goat) of food animals are slaughtered every year to meet the current demand. Such large scale slaughter of food animals generates huge amount of wastes but due to lack of proper sanitary measures in majority of slaughter houses of our country their wastes not only deteriorate the hygiene of meat and meat products but also pose a potential threat to the environment. Therefore, it is an urgent need for safe and proper disposal of slaughter house and meat processing waste for food safety and human health. It is also important to protect the environment and to improve the quality and hygiene of meat and meat products.

India is bestowed by nature with a vast livestock resources comprising of 190 million cattle, 108 million buffalo, 135.17 million goats, 65.06 million sheep, 10.29 million pigs, 729.2 million poultry, 0.29 million mithun and 0.07 million yak (Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, 2014). The livestock sector is an important segment of agriculture and contributes nearly 25.6 percent of value in agriculture, fishing and forestry sector. The total share of livestock in GDP of India is 4.11 percent and meat is an important sector to generate foreign revenue by export. The share can further be extended by utilization of animal by-products because it is a sector of livestock neglected most. It is an old saying that ‘each and everything comes from animals can be utilized except last cry of animals’.

Stomach and intestines are important part of animal body.  Stomach mainly constitutes rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasums. In which rumen, reticulum and omasum are utilized in form of edible uses, petfood and meat meal while abomasums can be converted into petfood and meat meal but abomasums of suckling calf can be utilized in extraction of rennet. Sheep rumen can also be utilized as haggis casings and pig stomach can be processed as petfood, pepsin, haggis casings and chitterlings. Organic content obtained from stomach and intestines can be utilized in form of compost, fertilizer and sometimes as feed. Intestine is also constitutes large intestine (colon, caecum and rectum), small intestine and oesophagus. In which large intestine and small intestine if not in condition to convert in casings can be utilized by rendering in form of meat meal.

Bones of the animal body makes a skeleton system and helps in locomotion and support soft tissues. The proportion of bones in animal body varies with the animal species as they contribute 12-28 percent in cattle and buffalo, 17-35 percent in sheep and lambs, 50percent in bobby calves, 25 percent in veal calves, 12-20 percent in pigs and 8-17 percent in poultry. As the age advances bones becomes rigid due to ossification of cartilages but in older age bones becomes brittle and fragile due to reduction in bone organic matter.

Hides and skin are the important and widely used animal by-products of slaughter house industry. Human beings are utilizing animal skins since time immorial and nomadic people still depend upon them for shelter, clothing, weapons, food containers etc. In general on live weight basis yield of hide is 7 percent while skin is around 11 percent.  Though it is also obtained from the fallen animals but the superior quality hide is always of slaughtered animals. Source wise slaughtered animals account 20-25 percent of hide and 80 percent of skin whereas fallen animals contributes around 75-80 percent of hide and 20 percent of skin. So the major sources for hide are fallen animals and skin is from slaughtered animals.

Blood is a first by-product of animal slaughter house. It accounts about 5-7 percent of animals live weight. It is highly nutritious material particularly rich in protein (17-18%) and essential nutrients. Blood is a rich source of amino acids like leucine, lysine, valine, phenylalanine, histidine etc. It is also rich in haem iron which is biologically most available form of iron. Protein efficiency ratio of plasma is 2.5 while 1.0 for globin. It contains about 80 percent water and responsible for effluent problems. It is a great source of pollution because BOD₅ of whole blood is 250000 mg/litre. It should be collected and processed as soon as possible because whole blood clots easily and is capable to clogs the drainage system, grease traps and septic tank of meat plant or abattoir.

Term rendering is generally used to recover the fat from animal material by heating. However, today rendering word is applied in broad sense in by-products industry to recover stock feed, fertilizers and fats from slaughter house offals, parts and condemned material from animal body. Today many products are recovered by rendering process and can be utilized in different ways. Some of them may be categorized as edible and inedible. The major examples are lard and tallow which may be edible and inedible depending on the processing. Other valuable products include chemicals, meat meals and bone meals. To get these valuable products, various animal by-products are processed like viscera, bones, trimmings, dead stock, feather and other poultry materials.

The vast livestock population requires proper harvesting of animal by-products to generate income to the farmers and to provide the employment to marginally educated masses. The density of livestock in our country demands atleast one animal by-product processing plant in each fifty kilometer range. Proper utilization of animal by-products will also serve in reduction of environmental pollution through slaughter house. Ultimately image of the meat industry can be enhanced by proper utilization of animal by-products. The proper disposal of animal slaughter house and by-products waste is further necessary to reduce the environmental pollution and to enhancement the livelihood of neighourers.

By-products or offal’s are basically every part or particle which is not included in dressed carcass. It can also be explained as everything produced from the animals except dressed meat is considered as by-products. Meat industry now demands the full utilization of by-products to make the industry profitable and economically sustainable. It is also important for environmental management and to enhance the social image of the meat industry. The yield of animal by-products ranges between 50-60% of the live weight.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a comprehensive food safety system of food which starts from production to the ultimate consumption. HACCP monitors each and every step of production process, identify the specific hazards, implement the effective control programme and also verify the procedure. However, it is not a zero risk programme and there is possibility of risk of hazards in the process but the theme of programme is to minimize the risk of hazards upto a level which will be considered as safe. Thus HACCP programme is termed as risk management tool. It involves the management of all types of hazards like microbiological, chemical and physical.

Meat cutting and fabrication is a skilled process in which separation of carcass into wholesale primal cuts is done to facilitate meat trade requirements, consumer preference and easy handling to the butchers. The person engaged in cutting and fabrication of carcass cuts must be skilled and expert in their job. He/she must have the expert knowledge of carcass configurations and location of retail cuts in animal carcasses. To obtain good quality retail cuts, carcass should be essentially chilled and temperature of meat cutting room should be 15-20oC with relative humidity of about 80%.

Levitical Law of Old Testament initially authorized meat animals for food of man who had to part the hoof and chew the cud. So man started eating the animals and their edible parts of animals who consume grass and other arable crops.  Examples were cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pigs, horses, deer, reindeer, yak, camel etc. Now poultry have become major meat producing species while rabbit, guinea pigs, various game animals and birds provides substantial meat. Advancement of knowledge on quality and safety enforced the man to evaluate and grade the live animals and carcasses for values decision in marketing.

Slaughtering and dressing of different kinds of animals and birds is an age old practice. Initially slaughtering was done by cutting the throat or stabbing the throat or breast. But today’s world of progress and scientific evolution slaughter methods has undergone material changes. Scientifically there are two essentials of slaughtering i.e. humane slaughter to avoid unnecessary pain and sufferings to the animals and complete bleeding. Legislations require stunning of animals to render them unconscious before bleeding except in Jewish and Muslim slaughter. The animals subjected to slaughter must be clean which is generally achieved by cleaning. The premises and transportation vehicles should also be maintained in good hygienic and sanitary conditions. All the facilities required for slaughter animals and birds arranged well in advance. In commercial plants and export units, slaughtering and dressing is performed on overhead rails but for domestic use, booth and simple rails may serve the purpose due to low throughput. The requirements and systems of overhead rail are mentioned in chapter 1. Some of the requirements are listed in following table