Kosher food?

Question - how about halal and kosher stuff? Is it processed the same way?

In my country where the majority of the population is muslim, most meats have to be halal. I think some of the popular slaughtering, processing and handling methods used in the US would render the product nonhalal (haram) or nonkosher. Is the slaughtering process the same in other developed countries that export meat? e.g. Australia/NZ?

Another thing - over here the eating of offal and other parts is fairly common, and there's a decent market for stuff like that - chicken: feet, gizzards, liver, intestines. Beef: stomach/tripe, liver, lungs. So on and so forth.

If there's a decent market for such offal intact would the processing be significantly different?

In the west there's probably a very limited market for such things - so where do these things end up?

I was actually quite impressed when you mentioned a prominent fast food chain uses recognizable sides of beef to make its patties. I'd have thought they'd use something else. Beef lungs or various other offal.

Lastly, USD9/hour is more than what I earn in IT as a consultant in my country. No wonder we don't have e.coli. problems with our meat - with our labour costs, animals can probably be slaughtered manually, without spreading guts and shit all over the carcass ala machine-style. Plus some of us eat some of those guts etc, so they'll valuable enough to be treated well. Same goes for salmonella.