The FSA decision’s that the preparation and service of rare burgers in food outlets is unacceptable unless a validated and verified food safety management plan is in place could lead to unnecessary and excessive controls on meat suppliers according to industry law firm, Roythornes Solicitors.
The decision follows the spike in demand from consumers for pink gourmet burgers. However, Tim Russ, partner in the food and drink team at Roythornes Solicitors, believes it could lead to needless, heavy handed regulation.
“The decision of the FSA could easily result in catering butchers and cutting plants being pushed into implementing overly forceful controls that go well above legislative requirements,” he said.
“An appropriate HACCP-based food safety management system is sufficient for analysing and dealing with any risks associated with producing and selling rare burgers.”
He added: “Whatever the FSA does it must ensure that food producers and processors are not burdened with superfluous and costly requirements when they are already complying with necessary safety standards.”
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
