FSA welcomes EFSA poultry inspection opinion
The European Food Safety Authority’s recent scientific opinion on poultry meat inspection, which suggested that traditional inspection may not be enough to fully address the most relevant biological hazards to public health, has been welcomed by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA).
In 2010, the European Commission asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to carry out risk assessments on the relevant hazards of poultry meat inspection to public health, animal health and welfare, and to advise on alternative approaches.
The EFSA opinion says that traditional poultry meat inspection does not enable the detection of the most important hazards to public health (campylobacter, salmonella and ESBL/AmpC gene-carrying bacteria), and recommends improvements to the current system.
“We have argued for some time that the current system of official meat controls does not address the most relevant meat-borne pathogens of today, which are microbiological and cannot be detected by the naked eye,” says an FSA spokesman. “In 2009, the Agency began a review of meat inspection, aimed at improving public health protection while delivering a more risk-based, effective and proportionate system for official controls on meat.
“Overall, the FSA welcomes EFSA’s work to improve public health and to provide the scientific basis for the modernisation of poultry meat inspection.”
EFSA’s views, and the views of European member states, stakeholders and international trade partners, will be considered by the Commission before changes to the current regulations are proposed.
