United Kingdom-End could be in sight for splitting mutton carcass's.

UNITED KINGDOM-SPLITTING MUTTON CARCASS’S.

As many of the remaining lambs from the 2008 crop move closer towards being 12 months of age, farmers are once again making National Sheep Association very aware of problems they are starting to encounter with sheep being devalued due to them having erupted their first permanent incisor tooth.

The eruption of this tooth is the accepted means by which a sheep is deemed to be 12 months old and as such they become subject to TSE related controls on spinal cord removal. In the UK the only means by which the Foods Standards Agency will currently accept spinal cord removal being undertaken is by the carcase being split into two which often results in it being hugely devalued to the farmer.

Farmers along with many livestock markets and abattoirs all feel that the human health related issues which first resulted in this regulation being introduced are now only of limited relevance as any suggested theoretical link between TSEs in sheep and human health issues has never been shown to exist outside of the laboratory.

Therefore there is a strong belief that a more proportionate regulatory regime should be implemented and at the very least the industry should be allowed to remove spinal cord by other means like suction as is already permitted in other EU countries such as France. A properly applied suction technique would achieve almost identical levels of cord removal and would have the enormous benefit of not devaluing the carcase.

NSA Chief Executive Peter Morris said ’I think it is true to say that all parts of the lamb supply chain from the farm through the markets to the abattoir genuinely believe that the degree of control placed on spinal cord removal in sheep is disproportionate to any perceived theoretical risk that might exist. We have all lobbied for several years to have more flexibility in these rules, but up to now the Food Standards Agency has not been minded to take action.

We all welcome the fact that FSA officials have now actually been to the continent to see suction removal of spinal cord in operation and we are hopeful that as a result of this they might be prepared to accept that this technique when properly undertaken is fit for purpose and should be acceptable in the UK. We all believe it deals more than adequately with any perceived risk that there might be in relation to spinal cord in sheep.

From the farming viewpoint there has been and continues to be considerable unhappiness about the financial implications of carcase splitting and whilst this is a major consideration for NSA, we accept that the FSA will be driven in their decision making by being satisfied that any perceived risk to human health from spinal cord removal by suction is negated. Right through the chain there is now a belief that we have reached the point in time where things can be changed without increasing any risk.’

Please contact us on 01684 892661 for further details.