About GB 4322
J W Mettrick & Son Ltd is based in Glossop (SK13), England. The Food Standards Agency approves it for cutting meat, slaughtering animals, handling wild game, processing meat products, making meat preparations such as sausages and marinated meat, re-wrapping and repacking, cold storage and making mince, for cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.
Is meat from GB 4322 halal?
The code shows which plant slaughtered, cut or packed the meat, not whether it is halal. It is approved to handle pigs as well as other animals, so check the halal certification on the pack carefully. Look for a halal logo from a named certifier, such as HMC or HFA, or ask the brand which certifier approves the product. More in halal meat codes.
What this approval means for halal
A cutting plant cuts carcasses into joints and portions. It does not slaughter animals, so the meat arrives from a slaughterhouse and the halal question moves upstream: where the meat came from, and whether halal meat is kept apart from non-halal meat while it is cut.
A slaughterhouse approval means animals are killed and dressed here. This is the step where halal is decided: how the animal is slaughtered, whether it is stunned first, who performs the slaughter and which certifier monitors it.
A game handling approval covers wild game such as deer, wild birds and rabbits. Hunted animals are not slaughtered in the way farm animals are, so scholars apply different rules to them. Ask a scholar you trust before relying on a pack.
What to ask before you rely on it
- Which slaughterhouses supply this plant, and are they halal certified?
- Is halal meat cut on separate lines or at separate times from non-halal meat?
- Is the slaughter here halal certified, and by which body?
- Are animals stunned before slaughter, and does your certifier accept that?
- Are halal and non-halal animals kept apart?
- How were the animals killed, and is that accepted by a scholar you follow?
Ask the brand on the pack, or the halal certifier named on it. Plants rarely publish this, so a written answer from the brand is the best evidence.
Meat plants in the area
The SK postcode area has 5 approved meat plants in the Food Standards Agency list, 4 of them slaughterhouses and 3 cutting plants. England has 731 in total.