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The Report of the Public Inquiry into the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales (see paragraph 5 for details) 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 a butcher'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: