Six years after 5-year-old Mason Jones died a painful and unnecessary death and two years after recommendations from a formal inquiry, the U.K. Food Standards Agency has decided to publish additional guidance on cross-contamination.

The UK. Meat industry immediately complained.

In November 1996, over 400 fell ill and 21 were killed in Scotland by E. coli O157:H7 found in deli meats produced by family butchers John Barr & Son. The Butcher of Scotland, who had been in business for 28 years and was previously awarded the title of Scottish Butcher of the Year, was using the same knives to handle raw and cooked meat.

In a 1997 inquiry, Prof. Hugh Pennington recommended, among other things, the physical separation, within premises and butcher shops, of raw and cooked meat products using separate counters, equipment and staff.

Five-year-old Mason Jones died on Oct. 4, 2005, from E. coli O157 as part of an outbreak which sickened 157 -- primarily schoolchildren -- in south Wales.

In a 2009 inquiry, Prof. Pennington concluded that serious failings at every step in the food chain allowed butcher William Tudor to start the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak, and that the responsibility for the outbreak, “falls squarely on the shoulders of Tudor,” finding that Tudor:

• encouraged staff suffering from stomach bugs and diarrhea to continue working;


• knew of cross-contamination between raw and cooked meats, but did nothing to prevent it;


• used the same packing in which raw meat had been delivered to subsequently store cooked product;
 and,

• operated a processing facility that contained a filthy meat slicer, cluttered and dirty chopping areas, and meat more than two years out of date piled in a freezer.

Prof Pennington said he was disappointed that the recommendations he made more than 10 years ago, following the E. coli O157 outbreak in Wishaw, Scotland, which killed 21 people had failed to prevent the South Wales Valleys outbreak.

In Feb. 2011, the U.K. Food Standards Authority issued guidance to clarify the steps that food businesses need to take to control the risk of contamination from E. coli O157.

On June 1, 2011, FSA published a Q&A document in response to feedback on its guidance on the control of cross-contamination with E. coli O157.

A few days later, the National Federation of Meat and Food Traders (NFMFT), warned that the cross-contamination guidelines pose a serious risk to the viability of small butchers and meat businesses.

Last week, the meat traders were back at it, saying some butchers have chosen to discontinue ready-to-eat food, as enforcement of FSA E. coli guidelines issued in February is getting tougher and this could lead to shop closures in the long-term.

Local authorities across the UK are increasingly enforcing the guidelines through normal inspection procedures, forcing butchers to alter their businesses. In order to comply with the requirement to separate equipment for raw and ready-to-eat food, some are using alternative vacuum-sealing techniques for prepared meat, but others have decided to discontinue it altogether.

Bye.

And the term, cross-contamination, doesn’t capture the carnage that dangerous bacteria can wreak, moving from raw foods to hands, cooked foods, prep surfaces and in butcheries. Bug transfer? The sisterhood of the travelling poop? Suggestions?

Sunday afternoon/evening in Brisbane, out wandering around the ‘burbs, and see a fine example of backyard butchering. I’m not sure what kind of hunk of meat this was, but they went at it for awhile, including the use of an electric jigsaw, and eventually packed the roasts in salt and wrapped them up.

An investigation into suspected illegal meat manufacturers in Sydney has uncovered a range of products from dodgy backyard butchers.

Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan says the NSW Food Authority found 29 of the 80 meat products assessed were produced by unlicensed operators, adding,

"In some cases, these unregulated products are then sold to the public through small retail outlets, delis, restaurants, cafes and weekend farmers' markets.”

The crackdown resulted in the issue of a number of enforcement actions, including 27 penalty notices, five improvement notices, four prohibition orders and ten warning letters.
 

Cats like meat.

Even though we live in central Manhattan (Kansas), there’s a small greenbelt behind the house and we’ve had visitors such as deer, turkeys, and yesterday, a fox.

The raccoons, squirrels, birds and rabbits are everywhere.

My two black cats have had happy hunting since our 2006 arrival, and left me a pair of lucky rabbits feet the other day (the two black ones, as kittens in this pic, from 2003; the other one, named Lucky, wasn’t so lucky).

Because cats like meat, it’s a good idea to keep them out of supermarkets, especially those with a butcher shop, or a meat case with open doors.

A colleague sent along this video of a cat in a meat case in a supermarket, apparently, according to readers’ comments, in St. Petersburgh, Russia. Not good supermarket food safety practices.