 UKmeat.orgInformation, support and advice for the UK meat industries |
Contact
numbers: phone (0207) 276-8373 fax (0207) 276-8311 |
Information for meat plants relating to Laboratories' testing
The microbiological criteria precisely specify how the laboratory testing of meat samples should be undertaken.
Testing should be according to the laboratory protocols specified by the most recent version of ISO 4833 (total aerobic counts), ISO 21528-2 (Enterobacteriaceae), ISO 16649 (E. coli) and ISO 6579 (Salmonella). Original copies of these standardised protocols are available for purchase from the British Standards website.
For the convenience of plant operators and to ensure that they are able to instruct their laboratories how to correctly process carcass swabs and other types of meat samples, the Agency has prepared a series of standard sample submission forms and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). These forms and SOPs are available in PDF format for direct download by clicking the hyperlinks below.
The Adobe Reader software is required to read the files. Adobe Reader can be downloaded without cost from here.
Submission of samples to your testing laboratory
Red Meat Carcasses
Determination of numbers of Enterobacteriaceae
Poultry Carcasses
Minced Meat, Meat preparations, Mechanically Separated Meat and Meat Products
Determination of β-glucuronidase-positive E. coli
Positive Salmonella isolations
Instructions for contract laboratories for sending confirmed Salmonella for typing
Reimbursement of isolating laboratory costs:
The Agency recognises that there are additional costs for the isolating laboratory associated with sending confirmed Salmonella isolates for typing. Since it is the intention of the Agency to make the typing process cost-neutral to the isolating laboratory, the FSA will meet all reasonable, additional expenses associated with sending confirmed Salmonella for typing.
The main sources of additional expense are:
1. The purchase of a biobottle.
2. Postage costs.
3. Subculture of a pure colony of Salmonella onto a Nutrient Agar slope.
4. Staff costs of a few minutes for filling in/ticking a few boxes on a form and labelling/packing the culture(s) into the biobottle(s).
The Agency has made arrangements for biobottles and prepaid postage labels to be sent free of charge to any laboratory that isolates Salmonella when undertaking testing for the UK meat industry against the EU microbiological criteria. If you would like to be sent a biobottle in advance so that you are ready when you isolate a Salmonella, please send an email containing a contact name and your laboratory’s address to biobottle213@ukmeat.org.
After discussion with a number of laboratories, the agency believes that the minor costs associated with sub-culturing a pure colony of Salmonella onto a nutrient agar slope and filling out the paperwork are more than covered by £5. Thus a postal order for £5 will be included in a replacement biobottle which will be sent to the isolating laboratory following receipt of a culture for typing by the reference laboratory. This payment will be reviewed in response to industry feedback over time.
Reporting of typing results to meat processors is via the password-protected database section of this website. Thus no extra expenses will be incurred for reporting by isolating laboratories.
Plant operators may also find the media components lists below useful
A general collection of media recipes
Database forms
The Agency are currently paying all costs associated with data entry into the meat test results database. Food business operators can request a username and password from Dawn Harrison, and enter their own results and view their own reports online. Paper forms are available below for those business that prefer to send their results by post or FAX and have their data typed up for them.