Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent reports he has received of food contamination at chicken abattoirs in Northern Ireland.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for meat hygiene official controls in poultry abattoirs across the United Kingdom (UK). The FSA advises there are six poultry abattoirs in Northern Ireland.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Veterinary Service (DARD VS) delivers meat hygiene official controls in poultry abattoirs on behalf of the FSA in Northern Ireland. DARD VS veterinary officials carry out these controls in the areas of ante-mortem inspection, post mortem inspection, sampling and regular verification audits of the abattoirs.

Post mortem inspection is carried out by qualified poultry meat inspectors or plant inspection assistants working under the direct supervision of the official veterinarian (OV). The OV is responsible for verifying on a daily basis that the post mortem inspection is carried out in accordance with food law. Part of the post mortem inspection includes examination of the carcase and offal for visible contamination.

DARD VS official veterinarians also conduct regular audits of approved establishments to verify that food business operators are complying with food law requirements.

Five of the poultry abattoirs have an audit category of ‘broadly compliant’ and one abattoir has an audit category of ‘not broadly compliant’ as of July 2014. Where an abattoir is not broadly compliant DARD VS takes action to improve compliance.

The outcomes of audit for FSA approved poultry abattoirs for Northern Ireland are published at:

www.food.gov.uk/business-industry/meat/audit

It is the responsibility of food business operators to comply with food law and ensure the food they produce is safe to eat.

The FSA in the UK are committed to reducing Campylobacter contamination in poultry at retail sale. A UK survey commenced in February 2014 and includes samples from NI. The results are published at:

www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/news/2014/9279/campylobacter-survey

The first set of results was published in August 2014.