Concerns Growing over Residues in Imported Meat Products

There are growing concerns in the UK that with the phasing out of non-statutory testing of imported animal food products, consumers could be put at risk from prohibited residues.

The British Veterinary Residues Committee has expressed its fears in its latest review of test result over the last year.

In domestically produced products there were few if no concerns about food products containing residues that might be harmful.

But there were worries that some imported products particularly aquaculture and poultry products that did contain residues at harmful levels.

The VRC also collected 600 samples in a non-statutory scheme and carried out 1,629 analyses.

These showed 10 results with residues above the action limits of 1.6 per cent The substances that continue to be found in imported products were chloramphenicol, clopidol and malachite green.

The VRC said the discovery of these products is of concern.

“We hold the view that surveillance of imported foods for residues of medicines used in countries outside of the EU must be maintained and coordination improved to strengthen non-statutory surveillance with results from other source,” the VRC said.

The VRC is now to work with the Food Standards Agency and retailers to find ways to continue testing imported food for residues.

In other continuing tests of beef products for traces of horse meat DNA being carried out across Europe, the results show that just 0.61 per cent of products tested were contaminated with horse meat DNA.

EU Commissioner for Health, Tonio Borg said: "Today's findings confirm that our collective efforts are bearing fruit and that increased controls to uncover food fraud are having real impact.

“Restoring the trust and confidence of European consumers and businesses in our food chain is vital for our economy given that the food sector is one of the EU's largest economic sectors.”

However, while tests showed success in stamping out the illegal use of horse meat in meat products, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, who first broke the horse meat scandal, discovered that lamb products in take-away restaurants often contained a large percentage of chicken meat.