Risk analysis and meat hygiene

Meat hygiene consists of three major activities: post-mortem inspection; monitoring and surveillance for chemical hazards; and maintenance of good hygienic practice throughout all stages between slaughter and consumption of meat. Risk analysis is an applied science of increasing importance to these activities in the following areas: facilitating the distribution of pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest inspection resources, proportional to the likelihood of public health and animal health hazards; establishing internationally-harmonized standards and specifications which are consistent and science-based; and improving the safety and wholesomeness of meat and meat products in local and international trade. Risk analysis, in one form or another, is well developed with respect to establishing standards and specifications for chemical hazards; methods for risk analysis of post-mortem meat inspection programmes are beginning to emerge. However, risk analysis of microbiological hazards in meat and meat products presents particular difficulties. All areas of application currently suffer from a lack of international agreement on risk assessment and risk management methodology.