TheMeatSite Newsletter - 17 October 2012

TheMeatSite Weekly Newsletter

Wednesday 17th October 2012

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: Food Safety Concerns at Border Checks after Government Cuts

Cuts in UK government funding could reduce the intensity of food inspections at UK borders leading to more foods entering the country containing banned residues.

Speaking at an open meeting of the UK Veterinary Residues Committee, agriculture representative Tim Brigstocke said that with the UK being only 63 per cent self-sufficient in food, the country relies heavily on imports.

And these imports have to be sampled and checked to ensure they do not contain any harmful residues from veterinary medicines or antibiotics.

He said that the non-statutory programme for sampling and testing that takes place at UK ports had never been so important.

The programme samples food product brought into the UK from outside the EU. All products produced or transported across borders within the EU have free market access.

However, cuts in government funds are now putting the testing and sampling process under pressure.

The Canadian National Farmers Union has called for a rethink on federal policy towards meat processors, in the wake of the E.coli crisis at XL Foods.

The NFU says that the government should implement the recommendations outlined in its report, The Farm Crisis and the Cattle Sector: Toward a New Analysis and New Solutions, including:

restraining packer power by reversing concentration and decoupling vertically integrated packers;
tailoring food safety regulations to encourage local abattoirs that could serve markets in every region; and
building collective cattle marketing agencies that will ensure an efficient, fair and transparent market for both buyers and sellers.

The closure of the VION Foods pig meat processing plant Halls of Broxburn is set to go ahead as the company has rejected two offers of a bail out, which it said were not viable and would not take into account the workforce.

VION says it is losing £79,000 a day at the plant and closure is its only option although the Scottish government is still trying to set up a rescue package to save the jobs and the plant.

Chris Harris

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 5 new features this week:

Irish Chilled Ready Meals Market
According to latest data from Kantar Worldpanel, the performance of the total grocery market in the Republic of Ireland has remained flat during the 52 week period to 2 September 2012, writes Linda Cullen from the Food and Beverages Division, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board.

Effect of Marinating Chicken Meat with Lemon, Green Tea and Turmeric Against Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens
Some combinations of plant extracts of lemon, turmeric and green tea were effective in killing or reducing Campylobacter strains and Salmonella on chicken breast fillets, according to new research from the University of Arkansas.

Salmonella in Feedingstuffs and Animal By-Products
Of the almost 45,000 tests carried out on feedingstuffs and animal by products in Great Britain last year, fewer than one per cent were positive for Salmonella, according to the 2011 edition of 'Salmonella in Livestock Production in GB', an annual publication from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency.

PUFA Enrichment in Laying Hens
Feeding hens different levels of a dietary source of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), researchers in Edmonton, Canada, found significant differences in egg PUFA level after 12 days without an effect on the PUFA concentration in the hens' plasma. PUFAs can have beneficial effects on human health and raising their concentration in eggs is one way to boost people's intake of PUFA.

How Fresh is Fresh? Perceptions, Experience when Buying, Consuming Fresh Cod
Most of us do not buy fresh fish that were caught more than three days ago. But if we do not know the date of capture, we are devouring fish that is often far older, says Nofima Scientist Jens Østli, and colleagues, who invited over 400 fishing customers in Norwegian supermarkets to answer how old does frozen fish have to be before they would stop buying it.