Meat Hygiene Policy Forum – Nov 08

Peter Hewson was in the Chair. Douglas Scott attended.

The Advisory Body for the Delivery of Official Controls was set up in December 2007 in response to the Tierney Review of the Delivery of Official Controls in Approved Meat Premises. It is chaired by Patrick Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health and Population Science, University College Dublin.

The Advisory Body has met three times since 2 April 2008 and considered the following issues:

1. MHS transformation
2. Optimisation Review
3. 2009/10 Charging proposal
4. Resource Utilisation Initiative
5. Modernisation of Meat Inspection

Skin on sheep – Under EU hygiene legislation the carcases of sheep must be completely skinned with the exception of heads and feet. However there is currently a market for illegally produced skin-on sheep carcases to meet demand from some ethnic groups. They are produced in premises that have not been approved for the slaughter of animals and are commonly called “smokies”, as they are produced by singeing or burning the fleece. Such production is illegal. Slaughter in premises that are not properly approved carries significant risks relating to unhygienic practices, lack of controls on specified risk material and animal by-products, and lack of traceability.

Work will be undertaken to look at the hygiene legislation and set out the legal basis for a derogation and which hygiene and inspection requirements would need to be amended, the scope for a national or EU wide measure, and to obtain legal advice. Data will also be sought from interested parties to develop the economic/potential market case. Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales) has indicated that they are willing to carry out some market research into skin-on sheep meat. They are working up some proposals and hope to put them to us in the near future.

Reports from the Policy Development Working Groups:
White Meat Group: Chair Jeremy Hall reported that they had met on 17/10/08. He claimed the Optimisation Review was giving exciting views on improving MHS efficiency and reducing costs. He warned that targets for campylobacter reduction have been set without any scientific solution to controlling contamination. No one knows what interventions would help the situation but it is likely that there will be increased incidence of campylobacter as less caged poultry is reared and production of free range and organic increases.

Game Group Chairman Tim Hoggarth reported that the Wild Game Guide had been launched and had made an immediate impact.

MHS Business Agreements
Jane Downes outlined these agreements i.e. agreeing the number of inspectors and when they need to be present. 14 of the 19 businesses involved in the Optimisation Project have already had their Business Agreement meetings. 20 other Business Agreements are planned.

Optimisation Review

The FSA has published a report on how the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) could be most effective in its work with abattoirs across Great Britain. The report was drafted jointly by a team comprising representatives from the Agency, the MHS and the meat industry. The Advisory Body of the Delivery of Official Controls welcomed and agreed the final report and recommendations of the Optimisation Review on 29 September 2008. An implementation Board including SAMW has been set up and the first meeting was held on 30th October.

Issues

1. The Optimisation Review report contains a number of recommendations on how to improve the working practices of the MHS and also food business operators.
The proposal at Recommendation 15 is to:
(15) Seek to achieve 'best practice' in food safety management systems to minimise necessity for intervention by MHS staff at post-mortem inspection.
2. While this recommendation was focussed primarily at visible contamination, this paper proposes work to see whether FBOs can further improve MHS efficiency by carrying out pre-inspection checks, although there are implications for slaughterhouse layouts etc. and so it also touches on Recommendation 14:
(14) FBOs to assess options for changing detained/retention facilities and procedures to permit more efficient use of MHIs and better operation of the slaughter line.
3. In some cases such as for green offal, FBO checks may prove sufficient to allow a move from official inspection to risk-based verification, as suggested in Recommendation 17:
(17) FSA to analyse the results of green offal inspection and consider implementing a pilot project on revised inspection procedures.

Proposal 1 – Trial of pre-inspection checks by FBOs in red meat establishments

4. In poultry slaughterhouses the FBO's staff, known as Plant Inspection Assistants (PIAs), are permitted to carry out post-mortem checks and the operator applies an identification mark. In red meat establishments, the law requires that officials perform the post-mortem inspections and apply, or oversee application of, the health mark. Operators may, however, carry out preliminary checks to identify defects and by applying marks, stickers, coloured bands etc. notify their presence to officials for further action.
5. It is proposed that, in early 2009, a meeting would be arranged to discuss trialling on a voluntary basis, the use of trained plant staff to assist with the identification of defects prior to the official post mortem inspection of red meat carcases and offal and whether this has an impact on the efficiency of official inspection. Expressions of interest are invited.

Proposal 2 – Verification of green offal inspection

6. Paragraph 37 of the OR report acknowledged doubts about the value of green offal inspection and proposed consideration of a pilot project (Rec.17).
7. It is proposed that, subject to the receipt of data and a risk assessment, the FSA would investigate the possibility of conducting a trial in which inspection of green offal not intended for human consumption and identified as 'normal' (i.e. no defect detected) by plant staff would be subject to official verification checks at a risk based frequency, rather than 100% official inspection.

Public consultation on MHS charging
Consultation is expected in December to be implemented in first half of 2009. Charging will move from headage charge to time charge. There was a plea from the British Veterinary Association to base recommendations on science and not on finances. FSA was to achieve a risk based control system and at a cost close to what industry ids currently paying. Agreed that tax payers should pay for public health controls.

BSE / TSE / SRM issues
On 21st November FSA will host a stakeholder workshop to review supervision of SM controls on OTM cattle. This will seek views on vertical column removal in butchers' shops. It is likely that SRM controls for UTM cattle will move more to food business operator responsibility.

The age limit for BSE testing was increased sat the FSA Board meeting in October. The FSA Board accepted that there was minimal risk to consumers as long as BSE surveillance continued. FSA will discuss this again on 10th December.

Approval of establishments
Peter Hewson reported that September 2009 was the earliest expected date for completion of approvals. This was because of the large number of conditional approvals in England. 143 sites had still to be assessed (81 slaughterhouses, 60 cutting plants and 2 game handling establishments.)

Post Mortem Inspection – — Visual Inspection of pigs
The stakeholders' meeting in March agreed that the effectiveness of Visual Inspection of Pigs (VIP) should be comparable to the effectiveness of Traditional Inspection of Pigs (TIP). Therefore, OVs working in UK pig slaughterhouses were asked to participate in a one-week anonymous survey in May 2008. Preliminary survey results (still subject to statistical analysis) show that approximately 9% of carcases re-inspected contained some minor abnormalities not initially detected ranging e.g. from small faecal contamination (< 0.5 cm²) to minor pathological lesions such as abscesses. Further data analysis is required to assess their significance in terms of public animal health and animal welfare. A pilot was conducted over 6 days, in 1 abattoir. Preliminary results show that VIP, in terms of effectiveness, is comparable to TIP, although statistical analysis is still being finalised. Further discussions with stakeholders are expected with stakeholders in November 2008, with a particular regard to the significance of survey results and practicalities of introducing VIP e.g. traceability, post mortem recording, as well as a possible VIP trial in another plant.
Future Meat Hygiene Controls Programme
Catherine Bowles reported that shaping the future form and content of meat hygiene regulations is under review. FSA recognise that they will need robust and compelling science and evidence to be able to change things.

The vision is starting with nothing but design from scratch. FSA convened a workshop on 30th September to begin to answer this question.

Modernisation of Meat Inspection
Recommendation from Lyon Seminar and CVOs meeting
The French Presidency presented a document at the CVOs conference (13-15 October) to achieve agreement on the conclusions from the Lyon Seminar about modernisation of slaughterhouse inspections. This will encourage the Commission to take steps towards modernisation and the FSA's aim of aligning meat hygiene legislation more closely to the regulation of the rest of the food chain.

The document received comments from different MSs and a final version will be circulated for adoption at the next CVOs meeting on 6 November.

Even if adopted, this will be the beginning of a long process as a modernised inspection regime in slaughterhouses will need to bear in mind animal health and welfare controls and facilitate international trade. Other factors that may affect the speed of the process during 2009 are the new European Parliament, new European Commission and the enhanced co-decision process (between the Commission and the Parliament).

Slaughterhouse hygiene measures
Mary Howell gave demonstration of online assessment of slaughterhouse hygiene. This was well received and may well be shape of things to come.

Proposed date of the next meeting: 18 May 2009