Food safety in butchers

[Mojooo]

Just a general wondering here.

Every now and again I will visit a butchers that is in an area I don't live in but I go to regularly - i.e its not my normal place. Its within an independent supermarket.

When I order my food (chickens) I note the following

- they dont wear overalls - just their normal clothes
- they don't apepar to wash their hands that often
- they don't wear hairnets
- they share knives and workspaces for cutting different types of meat (chicken/cow anyway) - not fish as far as I can see
- unwanted skin/cut offs are flung off to one side and cleaned off periodically.

Now its probably because we live in such a Health and Safety oirented country and because this kind of thing isn't on display in the big supermarkets but most of the above made me wonder if there are any potential issues with regards to food safety?

I guess as long as its cleaned properly at home and cooked properly there are no possible safety issues?

On the plus side this is a big retailer and no one appears to have died from buying meat there (a lot of regular customers) in the last 20 years and I keep going back - so clearly the food must be safe.

I really am clueless as to this sort of thing! I wonder if they are in rbeach of any regulations or laws.

Any thoughts?

[Sheets Tabuer]

Keeping chickens myself and having spent 20 minutes today hosing one down because it ate too many snails I feel you shouldn't worry about the lack of overalls or washing hands

[21TonyK]

I know there are a few butchers on here who will comment buy my take is that as the meat is not going to be eaten in the condition supplied the issue of potential contamination etc is largely negated. Butchers are subject to the same controls as every other part of the food industry and regularly inspected. While I am sure not every butcher is perfect butchers are licensed, you can't just "be a butcher" in the same way that anyone can set up and sell food.

My pet hate is when a butcher takes a bit of meat, puts it in a bag then hands it to you. the outside of the bag is contaminated and then so is your hand. This is why I always wash fruit and veg before eating and keep raw meat in a separate fridge at home. Might sound a bit too hygienic for home but having seen the consequences I'd rather not go through it myself!

[lawrence567]

In fairness if i went to a butchers & they did'nt have an overall on at least i don't think i'd buy from them.
Kind of like if i went to buy a new car & the salesman was wearing boardies & wife beater i would'nt buy from them.
In the long run is the meat going to be ok? - I would of thought so if it's washed etc, but it's just standards, i could'nt give 2 st's about the knife thing as at home i'll cut the veg & then i'll cut the chicken breast, it's all going to get cooked etc so i'm not phased!

[Pferdestarke]

There must be cross-contamination across the board from slaughter to wholesale to reseller to plate.

If you're cooking it properly and washing your own surfaces and hands then in most instances you'll be fine.

I do wonder myself about this sort of thing. If I was making steak tartare or sushi with produce bought from my local market I would always cut off a thin layer of external flesh to reduce the risk.

You do get these worriers like my MIL who literally threw a freezer worth of food away because the power had been off for an hour. Or a friend's mother who takes the cool box to the supermarket because she's afraid of the food going off in the boot on the three mile journey home. Get a grip!

Interesting.

[Bonefish Blues]

I watched our local butcher once tear a strip off one of his guys for poor procedures. I don't go anywhere else.

[F i F]

Pferdestarke said:

Or a friend's mother who takes the cool box to the supermarket because she's afraid of the food going off in the boot on the three mile journey home. Get a grip!

Think I must be married to your friend's mother. Really yanks my chain when I fancy a nice cold beef sarnie from the leftovers from a cracking beef joint that we had two days before and has been sitting nicely covered up in the fridge, only to find it's been chucked or minced down into rissoles. Even though I do like rissoles.

And when things that are themselves preservatives are thrown away just because of some spurious date on a packet and no evidence by sight or smell or anything of them being dodgy.

There are some things that shouldn't be messed about with, admittedly, but it can be taken too far.

For example she makes a pickled onion and cucumber mix, it survives two days and then chucked. In my work crash pad I've made it, left it in the fridge, and because she hasn't seen it to chuck it away it's still fine after 6 months. Bah!

[calibrax]

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The human race is now doomed because there are so many anti-bacterial products being used... kids are growing up with no exposure to germs and hence they haven't built up any immunity...

[zakelwe]

The big no no is serving raw meat and then going to cooked meats and serving them without a proper clean in the meantime

As long as you are cooking it then it kills 99% of all germs ( sounds like a domestos add)

The exception is burgers. E coli lives on the surface of meat so if you get a steak and cook it rare you will be all right. However if you get a burger where that surface is mixed in with the other stuff in the grinder and it is cooked rare then you get a Jack in the Box episode

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_in_the_Box

"Jack in the Box's success came to a halt in the 1990s because of two main factors: the national recession of 1990-91 (the company suffered an 81 percent decline in net earnings in 1991) and more importantly, the E. coli epidemic of 1993: Four children died and hundreds of others became sick in the Seattle area as well as California, Idaho and Nevada, after eating undercooked and contaminated meat from Jack in the Box. It was the largest and deadliest E. coli outbreak in American history up to that time"

Considering the Spanish ( or is it? ) German ecoli stuff presently it is something to take good notice of.

Having said all that, I love a rare burger!

Andy

[Cotty]

zakelwe said:

Considering the Spanish ( or is it? ) German ecoli stuff presently it is something to take good notice of.

I am certainly going to heed your avice and not eat any cucumbers.

[Use Psychology]

Sheets Tabuer said:

Keeping chickens myself and having spent 20 minutes today hosing one down because it ate too many snails I feel you shouldn't worry about the lack of overalls or washing hands

so, er, what does happen to a chicken that eats too many snails?

[Sheets Tabuer]

Use Psychology said:

so, er, what does happen to a chicken that eats too many snails?

Ever been to India and had a curry washed down with the local tap water?