Meat: Inspections

(asked on 22nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many instances of (a) hydronephrosis, (b) lymphadenitis, (c) tuberculosis and (d) steatosis were identified at official post-mortem inspection and prevented from entering the food chain by officials working for and on behalf of the Food Standards Agency performing meat inspections on red meat animals from 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2020.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 7th July 2020

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) holds the following data. For the period 1 January 2014 – 31 March 2020 the following instances were identified at post-mortem and prevented from entering the food chain:

Condition

Number of Instances

Hydronephrosis

1,266,255

*Lymphadenitis

*Not Specifically Recorded

Tuberculosis

314,726

*Steatosis

*Not Specifically Recorded

In 2015/16 the FSA, through consultation, with the Association of Meat Inspectors, meat hygiene inspectors, industry representatives, other Government departments, devolved administrations, academic organisations, internal and external veterinarians and others developed a more defined and actionable list of conditions surrounding animal health, public health and animal welfare.

Note:

*With red meat, conditions identified at post-mortem inspection point that are not specifically recorded by name are recorded into the FSA Collection and Communication of Inspection Results IT system as ‘Other’.

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