Meat Act (No. 56 of 1981).

The aim of this Act is to consolidate and amend the Meat Act 1964 and its amendments, and to make provision relating to the slaughtering, processing, packing, inspection, distribution and export of certain animals and any products or byproducts derived from them. It is divided into the following Parts: Inspectors and other officers (I); Sale of meat and other products for human consumption (II); Licenced premises (III); Miscellaneous provisions (IV). The Act has been extensively amended by subsequent Acts. The Act turns around the basic prohibition to sell, expose for sale, advertise or possess for sale purposes, any meat derived from any stock slaughtered elsewhere than in a licensed abattoir or export slaughterhouse, or any meat which is diseased or defective, whether or not the Inspector has declared the products to be so, if the meat is intended for human consumption. No meat shall be exported from New Zealand unless it is derived from stock slaughtered in an export slaughterhouse or has been inspected (sects. 9-12). The following premises must be licenced: abattoirs, export slaughterhouses, custom-killing premises, packing houses, certain byproduct premises, export stores, game packing houses, fish depots. No new licences shall be granted to rural slaughterhouses, although pre-existing ones are allowed to continue. Miscellaneous provisions include disposition of levies, appeals, offences and penalties and regulation-making powers.