It has been reported this week by the Guardian newspaper that a large consignment of Chinese antibiotic suspected to be destined for Northern Ireland where stopped at UK customs and with fresh fears of a new food scandal, enforcement authorities have opened investigations.
The antibiotic believed to have been discovered in the recent bust is Amoxicillin, commonly used in the poultry industry to treat the early signs of infections in the animal. It is currently restricted for use in the UK and is only allowed to be administered under veterinary supervision.
The Department for Health in Northern Ireland released a statement saying that “A multi-agency operation was carried out on Thursday 17th October in pursuance of offences under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013”.
Other leading organisations are also launching an investigation into the scare including the Food Standards Agency who are aware of previous offences made by the farm that is allegedly linked to this news.
As part of the EU safety regulations it is required that the UK notify the European Commission about incidents like this one that affect food safety. This is done to ensure that a rapid alert can be issued to all EU countries.
This announcement comes in light of last week’s news which confirmed that the UK poultry industry had seen an 80.2% reduction in antibiotic use in 2018. This is however only one case of these antibiotics being brought into the UK for animal usage, currently this is a rare event.
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Read more about this news article – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/food-scandal-fears-after-chinese-antibiotics-seized-at-uk-airport
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