Microbial quality of venison meat at retail in the UK in relation to production practices and processes

Venison is a popular game meat in the UK with steadily increasing sales. Deer can be wild, kept in parks or farmed and this affects whether deer are shot in the open or slaughtered indoors. The distance the carcasses need to be transported affects whether evisceration is outside or inside and the time before the carcasses can be chilled. Our work aims to identify best hygienic practice from the different methods used to produce venison meat in the UK. We have visited five major UK producers of venison and recorded the production practices and processes used. We have also examined the microbiological quality of retail venison meat from these producers with the aim of relating food hygiene status to the production practices employed.