§ Mr. Welshasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what consideration he gave, in formulating his policy on the sale of New York dressed poultry, to evidence that traditional New York dressed poultry are safer than frozen poultry; what inquiries he undertook; and whether he will review his policy on the marketing of such poultry after 1977 in the light of such evidence and inquiries.
§ Mr. StrangI have no evidence to that effect. The Food Research Institute has authorised me to say that the experiments conducted there to which reference has been made in this context were concerned solely with keeping quality; they have not demonstrated that uneviscerated poultry is safer than eviscerated poultry from a health standpoint. In the recent Consumers' Association Survey, which was based on a small sample and concerned only with salmonella contamination, only about one-quarter of the New York dressed birds examined had been eviscerated in the normal way by the retailer. Salmonellae were isolated from these birds in the same general proportions as isolations obtained in earlier studies from frozen poultry eviscerated in packing plants.