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Beefing up meat checks

Beefing up meat checks

Britain’s food safety watchdog is commissioning new research which could lead to significant changes in official meat controls and in the information farmers have to provide with their livestock.

The Food Standards Agency is putting out to tender a study on what constitutes key food chain information for livestock pre-slaughter as well as in identifying the most pertinent data collected during the carcase inspection process and how that should then be fed back to farmers. The findings from the work will be used in the FSA’s ongoing effort into creating what it believes will be a more risk-based and more effective meat inspection system for cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.

The current regime is based on checks that date back more than a century, some of which are now seen as outdated as they were decided on public health concerns of that era, including parasites and health problems visible to the naked eye. But the checks fail to recognise the microbiological risks carcases can carry. These threats, including the bacteria campylobacter, salmonella and e.coli, are responsible for an ever-increasing number of food poisoning incidents across the EU.

All livestock farmers have to complete a food chain information form with the livestock they send for slaughter. It gives information on any drugs the animals have had and details on the farm they have been raised. A previous study found issues with the approach and the new research aims to address this. The likelihood is that information collected will be more relevant as well as make better use of animal health and welfare data to target inspections.

Meat inspectors collect a variety of information on carcases as they check them. But there has been a longstanding criticism that a lot of the data, which could be used to improve the health and welfare of animals, is not fed back to farmers. The current official meat inspection rules are set by European legislation. Any changes have to be negotiated with member states and the European Commission.

The FSA has already warned it is a lengthy process, albeit reforms to pig inspections have been agreed and will be implemented next year. The most notable among the changes to the pig inspection regime is a reduction in the number of incisions made by meat inspectors in carcases to reduce cross-contamination risks.

Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers executive manager Ian Anderson said it had for a time been pressing for a more risk-based approach to meat inspection. “This appears to be a step in the right direction. The use of food chain information will become increasingly important of course in ensuring the correct development of the desired risk-based approach.”