Presence of Other Meat Species in Pork Sausage

Enforcement authorities have experienced problems in interpreting the legislation in respect of whether pork sausages are permitted to contain any meat species other than pork. The matter was referred to LACORS by the EMCOTS Food and Agricultural Group, who had previously raised the issue with the FSA. The opinion of the FSA was apparently that other species were permitted provided that the food contained the required minimum of 42% pork and that the other species did not characterise the product. The Agency indicated that LACORS had informally suggested that 2% of another species would be sufficient to characterise a food. LACORS subsequently advised that pork sausage can only contain pig meat and no other species.

The survey is intended to assess the presence and, as necessary, the approximate level of non-porcine meat in pork sausages.

Analysis was by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a semi-quantitative estimate of the level of the species present achieved by diluting the sample until the limit of detection was reached.

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