Farm shop under investigation for BSE testing irregularity

- Published: 14 December, 2006

An investigation has been launched by the Food Standards Agency after meat from an 30 month old heifer was sold without being tested for BSE by a farm shop in Somerset.

Meat from the heifer 10 days over 30 months slaughtered on 1 November at Chris Trott and Family abattoir in Bishops Lydeard, near Taunton in Somerset, was sold as fresh meat over the counter at the Rumwell Farm Shop in Rumwell.

The meat from the animal was also used to produce a small number of ready meals including lasagne, pies and chilli con carne which were sold at the same farm shop

Parts of the animal such as brain and the spinal cord which are most infectious in cases of BSE had already been removed.

The FSA in a statement that customers should not be concerned if they suspected that they had eaten "any of the affected products because the risk to health is extremely low".

It added that it was only the second occasion the Agency was aware of when an OTM animal had entered the food chain untested.