Information for the UK Meat Industries

Thank you for visiting this site; its purpose is to provide a place for the UK meat industry to obtain information on microbiological criteria regulations, how to comply with the regulation, how to undertake the testing, a place to record results and advice on how to undertake corrective action when the criteria are not met.  In addition, the site provides current information on  meat hygiene research that has being undertaken by the Food Standards Agency, and facilitates communication between industry and the Agency.

Information on the current EU microbiological criteria for meat plants that came into force on 11^th January 2006  is now available from this site through the links above.  The Hygiene and Microbiology Division of the FSA welcomes any feedback that you may have on them. Please address your comments to Mary Howell.  Alternatively you can send an anonymous message by clicking here.

A copy of the EU commission regulation (EC) 2073/2005 and it’s amendments that obliges the FSA to implement these new revised microbiological criteria from January 2006 is available by clicking here

New regulations relating to Salmonella

The regulations include criteria for Salmonella in meat and processed meat.  Details can be found under the red and white meat carcasses and processed meat sections that are linked at the top of this page.

Sample size changes from Jan 2010. If  a  sample  of  meat  tests  positive  for  Salmonella, the agency would like to undertake serotyping of the isolate. This will provide useful scientific information on a national basis which can be used in risk assessment.  Confidential, isolate-specific information is helpful to plants when undertaking corrective actions because it can provide clues as to the source of the contamination.  All costs associated with serotyping are met by the agency.   Further information on how to submit isolates for typing and receive confidential results can be found by clicking here.  The costs associated with serotyping are met by the agency.

Test Results Database

This site is also the home of the UK FSA-Industry Meat Test Results database.  The database is a joint venture between the UK meat industry and the FSA.  Plants enter their results into the database and ANONYMOUS national summaries are generated. 

The database IS NOT USED FOR ENFORCEMENT and exists only for research purposes.  In the past the database has provided evidence that the initial 10 CFU/cm² limit for total counts on food contact surfaces was an inappropriate target for plants to achieve.  The database was instrumental for the limit being raised to 100CFU/cm². 

Over the last 4 years, analysis of database data has revealed that there has been a sustained year-on-year improvement in UK red meat plant hygiene as assessed by bacterial numbers.  A poster presentation of this finding can be viewed here.  A full scientific paper reporting the finding has been published in the Journal of Food Protection.  The download page is here.  If you are not an IAFP member and would like a reprint copy of the paper free of charge, please send an email to mh@hutchisonscientific.com.

UK meat plant operators are strongly encouraged to include their plants' test results to the database.  Instructions can be found here.