Inspected vs. Uninspected Meat

The words inspected and uninspected describe an important regulatory distinction in Alberta’s meat system. They should not be used as casual marketing terms.

Inspected meat

Inspected meat comes through the applicable inspected slaughter and processing system.

At provincially inspected slaughter operations, animals receive ante-mortem inspection before slaughter and carcasses receive post-mortem inspection afterward.

Meat produced through the appropriate inspected system can enter commercial sale, subject to applicable requirements.

Uninspected meat

Alberta permits certain licensed private-use slaughter routes where the resulting meat is uninspected.

Examples include:

• slaughter performed under a Mobile Butcher Licence
• slaughter performed under an On-Farm Slaughter Operation licence

Uninspected does not mean illegal

Uninspected meat can be lawfully produced under Alberta’s private-use systems when the applicable requirements are followed.

What matters is that it remains within the uses permitted by that system.

Inspection is not a farming method

Inspection status does not tell you whether cattle were grass-finished, grain-finished, implanted, raised organically or managed under a particular farming system.

Those are separate production questions.

Inspection is not grading

Beef grading is also separate. Canadian grading evaluates carcass characteristics under the grading system and is not the same process as meat inspection.

Why PureBeef shows processing information

Consumers should be able to understand how beef entered the food system without PureBeef implying that one legitimate production method automatically makes the farmer or animal better than another.

We explain the practice. You decide what matters to you.