Reading in todays news that changes in meat safety checks could mean that we are going to be tucking in to diseased meat !
"Under new European regulations, supported by Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA), they will have to rely on visual checks alone."
"Ron Spellman, a British meat inspector with 30 years' experience, told the BBC that new regulations which took effect from June 1 risked diseased parts of animals going undetected. Last year we know that there were at least 37,000 pigs' heads with abscesses or tuberculosis lesions in lymph nodes in the head. They won't be cut now. There's no way to see those little abscesses, little tuberculosis lesions without cutting those lymph nodes."
The FSA counter the claims by stating "The FSA's chief operating officer, Andrew Rhodes, told the BBC it was better to have a hands-off system using visual checks to reduce cross-contamination, because bugs like E. coli and campylobacter are causing scientists more concern."
Obviously there is more to this than a sensationalism journalist but i was told/taught in college if meat was cooked properly most bacteria were killed off anyway?
Not sure which is worse now, but no doubt this debate will go on !
I always knew that certain sausages contained reclaimed meat, what i didn't know was that pigs heads were involved - "Meat from pigs' heads is recovered by specialised parts of boning plants and goes into pies, sausages and other processed foods."
Full report - MSN - Alert on meat safety check changes
Reclaimed pigs heads going into pies and what not. I refused to eat most cold meats (specifically one called Polony) simply because I found out what they use to make it.
