back to menuA new licensing scheme, administered by Environmental Health Departments, which introduces tighter controls on hygiene standards in butchers' shops in England came into force on November 1st. All premises selling unwrapped raw meat and ready- to- eat food to the public will have to be licensed annually under the Butchers' Licensing scheme. A parallel scheme came into force in Scotland on 2 October. These follow the 1996 E-Coli outbreak in Central Scotland which killed 17 people and caused around 500 cases of illness.
The Pennington Group, set up to identify the causes of the outbreak and the lessons to be learned, found the cause to be cross-contamination between raw meat and ready- to eat food as a result of poor hygiene and handling in a butcher's shop. The Group recommended that a licensing scheme should be introduced to increase hygiene and training levels and reduce the high risk of cross-contamination.
The license requires businesses to operate effective food safety management controls and ensure food handlers and supervisors receive appropriate food hygiene training. This will reduce the risk of cross-contamination between raw and cooked meat.
Initial surveys show that a surprising 70 per cent of butchers in England will have obtained a licence by 1 November, while almost 90 per cent of butchers in Scotland required to have a licence have now been issued with one. Most of the remaining premises, which meet the necessary standards, are expected to be licensed in early November. The Regulations do not cover butchers who only handle raw meat because of the considerable lower risk of any ready-to-eat foods being contaminated by the raw meat, but they do include some grocers and supermarkets with butchery service counters.
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