Officials from DAERA have defended plans for new legislation on mandatory sheep carcase classification and price reporting in NI.

It comes after representatives from local meat processors raised various concerns about the proposals during a meeting with MLAs in March 2026.

One of their criticisms surrounds the requirement for factories to leave a longer tail on sheep carcases by severing it between the sixth and seventh caudal vertebrae.

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Factory representatives told MLAs that this could have implications for hygiene, as there is a greater risk of dirt from the longer tail getting on to the carcase. However, at Stormont on April 30, Samantha Stewart from DAERA dismissed the concerns raised by meat processors.

“Advice from the Food Standards Agency and our veterinary staff is that there is no hygiene risk which would require full removal of the tail,” she said.

She also pointed out that in England and Wales, where sheep carcases are already presented with longer tails, there have been “no complaints regarding hygiene”.

Trimmed

Another issue surrounds the specification that carcases must be trimmed ahead of price reporting.

Meat factories representatives point out that the law in Britain allows the option for carcases to be presented to two different specifications.

But the draft legislation for NI only allows one of these specifications to be used, with the key difference being that the kidneys and kidney fat are left in the carcase.

Addressing this issue, Stewart said a formula has been developed to allow accurate price comparisons across the two different sheep carcase specifications.

“If there were ever demand for kidney knob and channel fat to be removed from carcasses, these could be removed after classification if needs be,” she added. Meat factory representatives also recently opposed the proposal for small abattoirs to be potentially exempt from the new sheep carcase regulations.

Kieran Coghlan from DAERA said a throughput exemption is included in sheep carcase legislation in Britain, as well as in similar NI laws for beef and pork processing

He also highlighted that DAERA’s proposal for a throughput exemption for sheep processors was set out in a public consultation in February 2024. “The processing industry didn’t raise any concerns at that stage,” Coghlan said.