MODERN APPROACH TO MEAT INSPECTION: AN ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE PROSPECT

摘要

EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, is the corner stone of EU risk assessment regarding food and feed safety. In close co-operation with national authorities and in open consultation with its stakeholders, EFSA provides independent scientific advice and clear communication on existing and emerging risks. In 2010, the European Commission requested that the EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) and the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) to deliver a scientific opinion on the public health hazards (biological and chemical respectively) to be covered by inspection of meat for domestic swine. The request was to identify and rank the main risks for public health that should be addressed by meat inspection, assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current meat inspection methodology, recommend inspection methods fit for the purpose of meeting the overall objectives of meat inspection for hazards currently not covered by the meat inspection system and recommend adaptations of inspection methods and/or frequencies of inspections that provide an equivalent level of protection. In addition, the EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) was asked to consider the possible implications for animal health and animal welfare of any changes suggested in the light of public health risks to current inspection methods. These changes included a reduced duration of transport and lairage, removal of palpation and incision from the post-mortem inspection protocols, and the introduction of risk categorisation (EFSA, 2011). Surveillance for animal health and welfare is mainly conducted for early detection, case-finding and estimating prevalence, and measurements of surveillance quality vary according to surveillance purpose. Qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches were used to assess the quality of the current meat inspection systems, as well as the proposed modifications of the system. The qualitative methodology relied on expert opinion and a review of the literature, and the quantitative methodology used a three stage epidemiological modelling approach. In the current systems of meat inspection, the probability of detection is often low, particularly for non-typical cases. It is expected to find some reduction in detection probability with a shift from the current to the proposed modified system of pig meat inspection. The magnitude of this difference will vary, depending on the disease/condition. However, for typical cases of diseases (or conditions) that generally affect several organs, the difference is likely to be minimal. In order to mitigate the reduced disease/condition detection probability of the proposed modified system, palpation and/or Incision should be conducted as a follow-up to visual inspection whenever abnormalities are seen. Meat inspection, for both ante- and post-mortem phases, is a key to overall surveillance system for pig health and welfare. The EFSA opinion highlights that there have been several occasions within the EU where outbreaks of epidemic diseases have first been detected during meat inspection. The opinion adopted by the Panel also notes that pig health and welfare surveillance information is currently greatly under-utilised.