QUALITY,

FOOD SAFETY

AND THE ENVIRONMENT

This department has a large, qualified team divided into different areas: quality, veterinary, laboratory and the environment.

Quality

This area is responsible for controlling and implementing certified management systems and for certification, as well as checking the HACCP process (hazard analysis and critical control points), managing complaints, and inspecting operations in the cutting room, filleting room and meat products.

Our production system is adapted to the most rigorous quality standards and in accordance with the most demanding regulations. In addition, the entire process is closely monitored by in-house professionals, who verify that the product and all its processes comply with our company’s quality and food safety policy.

VETERINARY

The plant’s own veterinarians are responsible for ante-mortem inspections and guaranteeing compliance with animal welfare standards during transport, unloading, stabling and slaughter. They also conduct post-mortem controls, register all documentation, identify seizures and gather the information required for exports outside the EU.

THE ENVIRONMENT

This area’s key responsibilities are controlling and managing the plant’s waste treatment facility in accordance with the criteria established by the Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro. This is in addition to treating potable water, waste control, atmosphere emission control and developing other environmental tasks, such as preventing infestations and carrying out health and safety treatments against legionella.

INTERNAL LABORATORY

Our in-house laboratory is divided into four distinct areas that apply the latest and most alternative scientific techniques. The parasitology laboratory with its corresponding trichinoscopic area, the water laboratory, where water parameters are tested and validated both for drinking water and for the treatment of wastewater, the microbiology laboratory, for processing samples and performing useful life studies, and the Covid laboratory, where, in addition to analysing human samples, analytical controls on meat products, surfaces, work utensils and packaging material are validated.

Moreover, our in-house laboratory has adopted a highly innovative trichinae larvae detection method that has made Litera Meat the only plant in the country to have implemented this. This is an alternative method in which decantation of samples is replaced by a filtration method, and the final step for detection is a latex agglutination test which replaces trichinoscope visualisation. The implementation of this methodology was approved by the Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón, an organisation that validated this novel technique in order to be able to implement it in the Litera Meat laboratory as well as in the different trichinae laboratories in Spain.

TRACEABILITY FROM START TO FINISH

The state-of-the-art technology used at Litera Meat allows for improved agility in the pursuit of full traceability and, consequently, enhanced food safety. Automated systems that employ an independent chip store all essential, required product information.

Traceability systems are extremely important considering they provide internal information that facilitates process control and management, they help to guarantee safety, and they also help to locate and immobilise products, if necessary.

QUALITY SEALS; CONFIDENCE AND PRESTIGE

Our quality seals and certificates, which are periodically renewed, guarantee the highest levels of quality and food safety in our company’s processes, products and services.

IFS

This seal guarantees the quality, safety and transparency of the products produced. It is a guarantee of trust and prestige via which compliance with food regulations and rigorous control in all processes are ensured.

BRC

The BRC Food Safety Standard is designed to provide the basis for certification for food manufacturers who implement good manufacturing practices and have supporting quality management systems.

WELFARE QUALITY

We also renew our Welfair™ Animal Welfare certification every year as a sign of our commitment and involvement in the protection and care of animals. In addition, this international certificate reflects a greater commitment to product quality and to a more demanding and respectful production and consumption model.