Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of meat (a) from the UK and (b) from outside the UK was (i) physically inspected and (ii) visually inspected in each of the last 10 years.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for the delivery of official controls in approved meat establishments (slaughterhouses, cutting plants and game handling establishments) subject to veterinary control within the United Kingdom. This work is carried out for the FSA by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in Northern Ireland (NI) through a Service Level Agreement.

Official veterinarians, and meat hygiene inspectors working under the supervision of official veterinarians, are typically present during processing of animals presented for slaughter. They carry out a range of duties, including ante and post mortem checks (on live animals and carcases and offal) and checks on the health and welfare of animals presented for slaughter. These official control duties ensure that food business operators have produced meat in accordance with regulatory requirements, with a health mark applied to show that meat is safe to enter the food chain.

The following table states the number of individual species slaughtered within Great Britain (GB) in the last 10 years:

The following table states the number of individual species slaughtered within Northern Ireland (NI) in the last eight years, it was not possible to collate 10 years data.

The above tables provides throughput for major species in GB and NI – either by financial year (GB) or calendar year (NI). Note species included are different.

The FSA and DARD do not routinely record the inspection method of animals slaughtered.

Poultry carcases and their associated offal are “visual only” inspected. Since June 2014 carcases and offal of pigs of all ages may undergo visual inspection procedures however further inspection procedures (palpation and/or incision) can be carried out when there may be indications of a risk to public health, animal health or animal welfare. All other carcases still require physical inspection and incision of lymph nodes.

With regards to imports of meat, all consignments of meat from outside of the European Union (EU) are required to be presented at UK Border Inspection Posts to undergo mandatory official controls. This includes 100% documentary and visual identity checks on all consignments. In addition EU legislation requires each Border Inspection Post to physically sample 20% of consignments of meat passing through each BIP, which may include a laboratory test. The FSA does not hold data on the original method of inspection where meat originates from a third country, outside of the UK or EU. However, in order to access the EU market third countries must be approved by the EU Commission as having ‘equivalent’ methods of inspection and hygiene standards.

Meat produced in the UK and all other member states of the EU is required to be produced and processed in accordance with EU legislation including hygiene and Hazard Analysis at Critical Control Point plans. All plants within the UK are subject to regular audit and inspection by the FSA or DARD (in Northern Ireland) to ensure compliance with these requirements. There will be similar audit and inspection by Competent Authorities in other member states.