Representatives from the poultry meat sector in Poland have answered to experiences in the UK in regards to the chance of Salmonella in merchandise.
Broadcaster ITV and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism said UK food safety chiefs were brooding about banning some poultry merchandise from Poland attributable to Salmonella.
The Nationwide Poultry Council – Chamber of Commerce and Polish Meat Association hit reduction on the claims, asserting that Polish poultry meat “was once, is and will proceed to be steady.” They added nationwide manufacturing standards result from rigorous European rules and quality procedures implemented by corporations working in Poland.
Industry defends itself
“We would capture to remind you that advise institutions repeatedly supervise breeding and manufacturing prerequisites at every stage. They kill many withhold an eye on procedures and procure certain merchandise are fully steady for patrons’ health.
“Your complete task is overseen by veterinarians who supervise flocks day-to-day, as successfully as the Veterinary Inspection, which inspects animals and meat bought from them. Polish producers have labored long and laborious to construct their build and would never allow themselves to quiz the repute of Polish poultry on global markets.”
In 2023, the Food Requirements Agency (FSA) said there had been 200 cases of salmonellosis in the UK triggered by totally different strains of Salmonella Enteritidis linked to poultry meat and eggs from Poland. The agency has investigated more than 90 incidents previously two years, with two outbreaks linked to eggs and three to poultry meat from Poland in 2023.
Emily Miles, FSA chief executive, and Christine Middlemiss, chief veterinary officer, wrote a letter to the European Commission and Polish chief veterinary officer to spice up the topic in late 2023. The UK Place of job for Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Alternate Assurance is venture an audit of Poland in April 2024 to clutch into yarn the controls in build.
Poland is the tip producer of poultry meat in the European Union, and over half of nationwide manufacturing is exported. In March, Jacek Czerniak, Secretary of Convey on the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Pattern, met with representatives from the poultry industry to focus on about the challenges faced. One topic discussed was once setting up solutions to cut the occurrence of Salmonella.
Now not merely a Polish jam
The Nationwide Poultry Council—Chamber of Commerce and Polish Meat Association said that attributable to the scale of the home industry, there are experiences in the EU’s Instant Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). Nonetheless, Salmonella has also been detected intelligent producers from international locations equivalent to Belgium, France, Hungary, Romania, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Ukraine, which method it isn’t handiest an topic in Poland.
There were 153 RASFF experiences for Salmonella in Polish poultry merchandise in 2023, down from 190 in 2022, when Poland recorded 6,221 Salmonella infections.
In a written quiz in March, Tilly Metz, from the Greens/European Free Alliance political group, raised hygiene points in the Polish poultry sector. She asked the EU Commission about future audits to look at up on findings from 2010, 2014, and 2019 and possible movement if the topic does not strengthen.
The Nationwide Poultry Council—Chamber of Commerce and Polish Meat Association reminded folks to look at hygiene recommendations and successfully handle raw meat. This entails acceptable warmth cure, customary washing of hands and surfaces eager with raw meat, and steady storage of raw merchandise.
They added producers have HACCP plans in build, and most expend extra standards equivalent to IFS (Global Food Favorite) or BRC (British Retail Consortium) to procure certain safety.
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