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The Report of the Public Inquiry into the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales was published in 2009 and made a number of recommendations, to which the Agency is responding on a UK-basis. In relation to this consultation, the following are the most significant:

• Recommendation 1: All food businesses must ensure that their systems and procedures are capable of preventing contamination or cross-contamination of food with E. coli O157
• Recommendation 4:: The principles underpinning the Butchers' Licensing Scheme...should guide food hygiene measures in businesses processing raw meat and unwrapped ready to eat foods
• Recommendation 5: The Food Standards Agency should review its current guidance and should be proactive in generating new guidance where needs are identified
• Recommendation 6: The Food Standards Agency should remove the confusion that exists among food business operators about what solution(s) should be used to prevent cross-contamination from surfaces and equipment

E. coli O157 is a particularly dangerous organism due to:

• its very low infective dose that can cause serious illness and death
• its ability to survive acidic environments, refrigeration and freezing

Young children, the elderly and immune-compromised individuals are particularly at risk. While not exclusively meat-borne, the fatalities in Scotland (1996) and Wales (2005) were due to cross-contamination of food by E. coli O157 from raw meat in abutcher's premises.

This consultation started on 14th July 2010 and ended on 5th October 2010.

Here are the documents we were able to locate that relate to this consultation: