Meat from diseased cattle that tests positive for bovine tuberculosis has been sold for human consumption by Defra, the food and farming ministry says.
Raw meat taken from around 28,000 diseased with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) animals each year is banned by most supermarkets and burger chains according to a report in the The Sunday Times.
All meat from cattle slaughtered due to bovine TB must undergo rigorous food safety checks before it can be passed fit for consumption. Defra
However, it is being sold to caterers and food processors and even finding its way into schools, hospitals and military catering as well as being processed into products such as pies and pasties.
The meat is being sold with no warning to processors or consumers that it comes from bTB infected cattle.
Supermarket giant Tesco rejects using the meat due to “public-health concerns surrounding the issue of bTB and its risk to consumers”.
A Defra spokeswoman has confirmed that: “All meat from cattle slaughtered due to bovine TB must undergo rigorous food safety checks before it can be passed fit for consumption”.
“The Food Standards Agency has confirmed there are no known cases where TB has been transmitted through eating meat and the risk of infection from eating meat, even if raw or undercooked, remains extremely low”.
At present there is now way for the public to be made aware the meat they are buying originates from an infected cow.
The Food Standards Agency has said: “All meat must be marked with an identification mark which will indicate the approval number of the plant of origin.
“However, meat from TB reactors, once it has been passed as fit for human consumption, is not required to be marked in any way to distinguish it from other meat.
“Meat which passes the post mortem inspection is fit for human consumption and does not need additional labelling.”
If an inspection of a carcass reveals tuberculous lesions in more than one organ or region it is declared unfit for human consumption and destroyed.
But if only the lymph nodes in one organ or part of the carcass is infected, then that area is removed and the rest is considered safe to enter the food chain.
The FSA says cooking this meat would be an additional safety step “but we would emphasise the risk even before cooking is very low”.
The Sunday Times reported that Defra’s statements were at odds with expert warnings about rising levels of bTB in cattle becoming a serious threat to human health.
These claims have been used to justify a cull of tens of thousands of badgers which, are said by some, to help spread the disease between cattle.