Codex CXC 58-2005, the Code of Hygienic Practice for Meat adopted in 2005, sets hygiene rules for red meat and poultry from the live animal to retail sale. It asks for outcomes, not numbers, so your limits come from your authority, such as the 7 °C carcass and 4 °C poultry chilling limits in Great Britain's version of Regulation 853/2004.
This guide is for slaughterhouse and poultry plant managers, QA teams, veterinary inspectors and the municipalities that license or lease these sites.
What does Codex CXC 58-2005 cover?
The code covers raw meat, meat preparations and manufactured meat from primary production up to retail sale. Its definitions include domestic ungulates, domestic birds such as poultry, lagomorphs and farmed and wild game, so one text serves a cattle floor and a broiler line.
It replaced several older Codex codes, including those for fresh meat, poultry processing and ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection. It builds on the General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969) and its HACCP annex. You can read the full text in the FAO and WHO compilation Animal Food Production, second edition, 2009.
The main sections follow the animal. Section 5 deals with primary production, Section 6 with animals presented for slaughter and ante-mortem inspection, and Section 8 with premises and equipment. Section 9 covers process control, slaughter and dressing, post-mortem inspection and chilling. Sections 10, 11 and 14 cover sanitation, personal hygiene and training, and two annexes cover risk-based post-mortem inspection and microbiological verification.
What does the code expect on the slaughter floor?
Every animal should pass ante-mortem inspection by a competent person, individually or by lot (Section 6.3). Only live animals intended for slaughter enter the abattoir, apart from documented emergency slaughter (paragraph 119). An animal is slaughtered only when someone is available to carry out ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection.
During dressing, skinning is finished before evisceration and evisceration is done without delay. Spillage from the gut, bladder or udder is prevented. Once hide removal starts, carcasses are kept apart until they have been inspected.
The trachea and oesophagus stay intact during bleeding except in ritual slaughter, which is where halal rules take over. Our halal slaughter guide for the UAE, GCC and Malaysia covers those rules.
The inspector has real power here. If the way animals are slaughtered or dressed threatens meat safety, the competent person should slow the line or stop it (paragraph 127).
What changes on a poultry line?
The code treats poultry as a continuous process with its own risks. Birds can only be cleaned with potable water after defeathering, so carcasses are washed at several steps, as soon as possible after each contaminating step (paragraph 123).
Scald tank water should be managed so that it does not become heavily contaminated. Full separation of carcasses is harder on a line, but contact should still be kept to a minimum. Viscera other than the kidneys come out as soon as possible (paragraph 147).
Immersion chillers need particular care. The process must meet hygiene criteria set by the competent authority. Carcass temperature should fall as fast as possible, and birds leaving the chiller should carry lower counts than birds going in. Tanks are emptied, cleaned and sanitised as appropriate.
Which temperature limits apply, and who sets them?
CXC 58-2005 sets no fixed temperatures. It asks for carcasses to be chilled as rapidly as possible to a temperature that limits microbial growth, and for an unbroken cold chain (paragraph 146). It also asks for hot potable water, or an equivalent system, to sanitise equipment.
The numbers come from the authority that licenses the plant. The table shows how two authorities fill the gap. Use the limits of the market you supply, and confirm them with that authority.
| Control point | Codex CXC 58-2005 | Example of a set limit |
|---|---|---|
| Knife and tool sanitising | Hot potable water or an equivalent system | Great Britain, Regulation 853/2004 Annex III: hot water at not less than 82 °C, or an equivalent system |
| Red meat chilling | As rapidly as possible after post-mortem inspection | Great Britain: not more than 7 °C throughout the meat, 3 °C for offal |
| Cutting and boning rooms | Temperature controlled to written specifications | Great Britain: meat kept at 7 °C or below (offal 3 °C), room at 12 °C or below or an equivalent system |
| Poultry chilling | As rapidly as possible. Immersion chillers meet the authority's criteria | Great Britain: not more than 4 °C as soon as possible. United States, 9 CFR 381.66: written chilling procedures that prevent pathogen outgrowth, with no fixed figure |
The US example matters. Because its chilling rule is a performance standard, a US poultry plant must prove that its own chilling procedure works, written into its HACCP plan or sanitation SOPs. That is close to the Codex approach.
What records do inspectors and auditors expect?
Codex asks for a documented process control system, with HACCP applied to meat (Section 9.2.2) and corrective actions that keep the plant within its performance criteria. Sanitation SOPs should state the scope of cleaning, the method, who is responsible, and how it is monitored and recorded. In practice, this is AGS's reading of what an inspector asks to see.
- Ante-mortem records: lot identity, findings, animals held or rejected.
- Post-mortem judgements and the disposal of condemned material.
- Chiller and cold-room temperature records against your authority's limits.
- Knife steriliser checks, and scald and chiller water management for poultry.
- Pre-operational and operational sanitation checks with corrective actions.
- Microbiological verification results, as Annex II describes.
- Training records for slaughter, dressing and inspection staff.
Health marks carry the plant's approval or registration number, so traceability starts at the stamp (paragraph 148).
What should a leased slaughterhouse agreement fix in writing?
Where a municipality owns a slaughterhouse and an investor runs it, disputes usually start with vague duties. The technical annex to the lease should state who maintains the building, water and refrigeration, the minimum staffing, and which hygiene limits apply. It should also cover who keeps the records and how inspections and penalties work.
Writing the authority's limits into the contract gives both sides the same measurable standard. Take legal advice on the contract itself.
How AGS can help
AGS has two single editable Microsoft Word guideline documents for these sites:
- Hygiene & Sanitation Guidelines - Slaughterhouses and Meat Processing Industry: 1 document, 34 sections with red meat and poultry flow tables and an inspection checklist.
- Technical & Hygiene Guidelines - Poultry Slaughterhouses: 1 document, 32 chapters including leasing, investor conditions, a production line sequence and a records register.
Frequently asked questions
Is CXC 58-2005 legally binding?
No. Codex codes are international recommendations. They become binding only where a government writes them into its own law or licence conditions.
Does the code apply to small or local slaughterhouses?
Yes, its principles apply to all meat. It notes that traditional practices may depart from some recommendations where meat is produced for local trade.
Does halal slaughter change the hygiene rules?
No. Halal requirements sit on top of meat hygiene. Plants supplying OIC markets should also read our OIC/SMIIC halal slaughter guide.
Where do processed meat rules sit?
The same code covers meat preparations and manufactured meat. Our meat products guide deals with mincing and manufacturing plants.
AGS provides independent documentation toolkits. This guide and the documents listed are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, FAO, WHO or any food safety authority. They do not guarantee any licence or inspection result.
Reviewed October 2026. Facts checked against the sources current at publication.
