Wake up call for Scottish Venison

Addressing an audience of 24 attendees, Steven Gibbs, Chairman of Scottish Quality Wild Venison introduced the subject of controls required for venison processing in the light of a recent problem identified with venison products from Highland Game.

Ian McWatt from FSS started by stating that what has gone on before in terms of handling venison cannot continue. This is a wake up call to the industry and there is a real need to change.

Problem in Scotland because globally it has the highest predominance of ecoli. A paradigm shift is required according to FSS. Highland Game was praised for the standards in their premises “one of the best game handling establishments in the world”. They have a very good HACCP.

Ecoli 200-250 cases reported in Scotland annually. Most patients recover within 10 days, 38% of cases hospitalised, 1-2% fatality rate. Ecoli can have long term debilitating effects and has low infective dosage rate to cause illness. In contrast Campylobacter requires tens of thousands of the bugs but Ecoli only three or four. Ecoli has active growth from 7C to 50C and grow in acidic conditions.

Ecoli O157 is the most common pathogenic strain. Scotland has more Ecoli than the rest of the UK combined and is consistently higher. Those most at risk are children under 16 and over 65s. These are where more deaths occur.

Transmission can be either Direct – digested, or Indirect – poor personal hygiene.

Where does it come from?
Can be associated with water supply, raw milk and contaminated pasture.
In the past red meat, bean sprouts, now venison. “Game changer now as an industry have to wake up to that.” Regulators have been challenged to stop incidents like Mason Jones in Wales happen again. Fortunately the Dundee case did not result any deaths.

John M Barr: 270 confirmed cases 17 died
South Wales: 118 confirmed cases, one death.
The Hydro case in Glasgow

Super shedding has created a 20% prevalence in the cattle herd. Endemic within Scotland and something that the game sector is not immune from.

Reference to the Venison incident: It is a raw product and the food is safe, bacteria expected in raw meat. Clearly ecoli got into the product and there was poor cooking in the home.

“Where the game industry goes is up to the industry” said Ian McWatt. “What controls are you going to put in place?” Improvements need to be made – what has gone on before cannot continue – need for greater understanding of risks to protect consumer, industry and Scotland PLC. Industry is only as good as the weakest link. There is a need for understanding that all parts of the supply chain are involved in food production. There is a need to review current practices, systems of work and guidance from field right to supply to final consumer.

Ability for Local Authorities to monitor all game premises is very difficult because of constraints on their budgets. Regulatory controls may need to change and will include unannounced inspections for approved establishments. There is a feeling that the problem lies with producers who are not using approved establishments.

150,000 deer shot in Scotland annually. Carcase contamination can happen at the last phase of processing and there was a proposal to test carcases that could add cost of only a few pence. It was agreed that it was difficult for producers to assure hygiene of the carcases and testing is probably pointless. The safe assumption is to assume that every carcase is carrying O157.

Approved slaughterhouses have 100% inspection with HACCP systems. There they have knowledge of hygiene requirements but this knowledge does not appear to be prevalent in game handling. Stalkers need 'Good Practice Days' but there is a need for research to know how to dress most efficiently. It is unknown if red deer is the only species affected. More questions than answers at the moment and sampling is required to identify the areas of risk.

In an abattoir there is temperature control but on a hillside that cannot be achieved and possibly a greater risk from roe deer killed in summer.

Avoiding the problem by educating consumers to practice good food hygiene is unlikely to be good enough. Super shedding creates bigger dangers and further controls are necessary.

Best practice needs promoted and industry standards raised. Controls for small establishments handling under 300 venison units is currently unaccountable.

Solutions lie around improved graloching, training and supervision, transport, time scales, monitoring contamination, larder and processing controls. This is what the venison industry needs to address, eradication is impossible you can only do the best you possibly can to reduce the risks to as low a level as possible.

Meeting closed at 13:00