The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has moved to assure consumers that dangerous pathogens in meat, particularly E.coli 0157, can be easily killed by proper cooking.
This follows last night's RTE Prime Time television survey which claimed that 53 per cent of raw minced beef contained "significant levels of E.coli, the classic sign of faecal contamination".
The survey follows analysis of 100 samples of meat in Irish supermarkets and butchers' shops and was based on the detection of the relatively harmless E.coli bacterium, which widely occurs in animals and humans - it is different to the notorious E.coli 0157 strain, none of which were found in any of the samples.
While the survey found no presence of the more dangerous version of the bacterium, less harmful E.coli can indicate faecal contamination. Equally, the presence of such bacteria in food does not necessarily mean they are from animal sources. But the findings do show how easily contamination by E.coli 0157 could occur - it is routinely present in about 10 per cent of cattle, in their gut and faeces.
The FSAI reiterated its view that the survey sample was very small, and underlined that the relatively harmless form of E.coli is widespread in nature. Its chief executive, Dr Patrick Wall, contended that it would be "wrong to read too much from such a small piece of research". Nonetheless, he accepted the programme underlined that the "onus is on industry and inspectors to get meat to the point of sale in the best possible condition".
The Green Party, however, said the Government had to face up to its responsibilities in protecting the public from the effects of bad practices in food production. Referring to the Prime Time survey, MEP Ms Nuala Ahern said it was "an indictment of Government's lack of action on food safety".
In a statement responding to the Prime Time programme, the Association of Craft Butchers of Ireland said it sold products "of only the highest standard". To ensure this members personally selected "only the healthiest and cleanest young animals from specified local farms" and processed their choice meat in a specified local, veterinary-supervised abattoir.
The association said its members were personally committed to the sourcing of quality product and the smaller scale of its operations facilitated "step-by-step traceability". A conference on meat safety in Dublin yesterday heard that farmers would have to deploy the kind of food safety checks being used by the best Irish food companies if they were to ensure effective control of E.coli 0157 bacteria, and restore consumer confidence in meat.
This approach to food safety was imperative in view of the imminent move by the EU to "make primary producers [which includes farmers] liable for the safety of their produce", Dr Declan Bolton of Teagasc's National Food Centre (NFC) said. The conference was staged to outline to Irish industry advances in ensuring meat safety and quality.
With retailers demanding the highest food safety standards and wanting their suppliers to have quality assurance schemes, farmers had little choice but to apply a preventative approach if they wanted to stay in business. This, he said, involved identifying hazards and critical points on the farm. It was possible and necessary to implement the now widely used preventative system known as HACCP at farm level.
People routinely and instinctively apply its basic principles, for example, in cooking a breakfast of eggs, sausages and bacon, he noted. They carry out hazard analysis; they are aware of "the possible contamination with salmonella, E.coli and a host of nasties". Cooking was the "critical control point"; the time and temperature required to prepare the food is carefully determined, cooking is monitored and a check made to see if food is cooked enough.
It had to be accepted that "residual levels of E.coli and salmonella in meat are a direct consequence of the way in which animals have been reared", said Mr Ted Greaves, of Sainsbury Supermarkets in the UK, which has yearly meat sales close to £2.5 billion. Meat would, however, remain the central theme of the family meal among its 11 million customers, though they would demand ever more new and innovative food products, he believed.
Sainsbury's placed great faith in customer concern groups, he said. "It is not surprising that top of their list of concerns is BSE, but this is closely followed by the major pathogens E.coli and salmonella, which we must recognise as being principally associated with meat and poultry.
"Customers are worried about meat. It is therefore clear that the future of meat production depends on all components of the production chain acting in partnership."
