The meat sector has been defending itself against claims that slaughterhouses are failing to follow basic hygiene precautions to stop contaminated meat entering the food chain.

The FSA, the government body responsible for food safety and hygiene in the UK, said the claims published in The Observer last weekend “do not give the complete picture on the condition of meat entering the food chain” and that hygiene failures are not tolerated.

Carcase inspections

An investigation carried out by The Observer and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism analysed 323 abattoirs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and identified major hygiene failings in 86 of the slaughterhouses.

This included instances of carcases coming into contact with the factory floor, often dirty with the detritus of slaughter, cutting equipment not sterilised or washed adequately, and meat splashed with dirty water potentially containing faecal matter.

The failings could expose consumers to serious food poisoning illnesses such as E coli, salmonella or campylobacter.

However, the FSA has come out to dispute the claims, saying its officials “inspect every red meat and poultry carcase for visible contamination – 99.57% of them pass the test.

“The remaining 0.43% is rejected and passed back to the food business, and they have to rectify the problem.

“If it doesn’t pass, then it does not get a health mark and it does not enter the human food chain.”

Improving standards

The report also claimed that FSA official records were falsified to conceal true levels of meat contamination at an English abattoir.

A whistleblower said data relating to contamination of carcases was misrecorded to mask poor hygiene practices at the plant, potentially allowing dirty meat to enter the food chain.

The FSA said it takes “robust enforcement action to ensure food businesses improve their procedures to prevent meat becoming contaminated in the first place”.

“Ultimately, if standards are not improving or the risk to public health is high enough, we take enforcement action up to and including taking away a premises’ approval to operate.”

The body added that there are currently no plans to remove real-time meat inspections as they remain a crucial part of the way it effectively administers the legal system of controls to assure the public that meat production complies with hygiene and animal welfare controls.

Comment on the revelations from markets specialist Phelim O’Neil

The weekend newspaper story is the latest in alarmist reporting on the red meat industry that stretches back to the BSE story over two decades ago.

The reality is that meat coming from an abattoir is not a sterile product without using an acid wash in the process as is carried out in the US.

In Europe, the preference is to focus on presenting carcases without any visible signs of contamination. Hence, the clean cattle policy referred to by abattoirs who in turn have to ensure that the carcase does not come in contact with the hide.

While any visible contamination is removed, the fact remains that cooking is required of any meat pieces that are exposed.

Therefore, it is acceptable to cook steaks rare because only the surface of the steak is not sterile.

However, with burgers it is advised to cook all the way through as the mincing process mixes up sterile meat cuts with those that have an exposed surface.

Regulation in the beef industry

Meat processing in the UK, as in Ireland, is one of the most regulated and inspected businesses in the food industry.

That comes at a considerable cost and the authorities are always looking at ways of bringing a more risk-based approach to the process.

Inspections in their nature have an element of subjectivity.

The important inspection to remember is that over 99.5% of product is approved first time.

The remainder is reworked and represented for approval; otherwise, it is outside the food chain.

A former Irish health minister once commented that she wished the standard of hygiene was as good in hospitals as it is in meat factories.

While the remarks referred to Ireland, they are equally applicable to the UK.

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