The Food Standards Agency is putting out a research call to provide a better understanding of public health risks associated with partially eviscerated poultry production.
The results will help inform decisions related to risk management interventions.
They will also support a case for the development of policy, both in relation to the FBO controls over this type of production and the type and level of official controls required.
Partially eviscerated (effilé) poultry is where the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, crop (a muscular pouch near the throat), proventriculus (part of the digestive system) and gizzard have been left inside the body cavity.
Regulation (EC) 853/2004 allows production of effilé poultry, provided it is authorised by the competent authority.
The UK has little experience of effilé poultry production, although trials have taken place in a few UK plants.
Proposals are invited to carry out a qualitative risk assessment of partially eviscerated (effilé) poultry and suggest alternative controls to address any significant and relevant public health risks.
Proposals sought will consider:
details about the abnormalities that may not be identified in effilé as compared with fully eviscerated poultry
the aetiology of the conditions that produce those abnormalities
the public health implications of those conditions
It is thought that the project will take a maximum of eight to nine months, with a final report submitted to the Agency by the end of April 2014.
