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Written question asked by Jim Cunningham (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 September 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 September 2019 (named day). It was answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative) on Tuesday, 1 October 2019 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Eggs: Salmonella

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of scheduled tests for salmonella in eggs that were (a) carried out behind schedule and (b) not carried out.

Answer

National Control Plan official sampling is done annually as per legislative requirements. The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) are an approved Industry Control Body for their own assurance scheme members and their annual official sampling is carried out by their auditors NSF International. Non-BEIC producers are sampled by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

In 2018, APHA completed all official sampling on non-BEIC laying farms in the timescales required. 2019 sampling for non-BEIC laying farms is also on track for completion within the timescales required.

As part of routine regulatory inspections APHA inspectors audit each egg producer’s salmonella sampling records in order to review operator sampling. Where late or missed sampling is identified a penalty notice will be issued. In addition, where there is no clear current test present at the time of the inspection, the inspector will immediately take the appropriate samples for testing and will serve a notice applying restrictions to the eggs pending a clear test result.

The number of penalty notices that have been raised against producers in England are:

01/06/16-31/05/17 - 30.

01/06/17-31/05/18 - 44.

01/06/18-31/05/19 - 35.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
290637
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Eggs Testing Salmonella
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk