Foot and mouth poses no food safety risks

Wednesday 8 August 2007

The current outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a farm in Surrey has no safety implications for the human food chain and people do not need to change their diet – and can continue to consume meat and milk.

Foot and mouth disease is an animal disease and not a public health issue. The foot and mouth virus is destroyed by heat. Therefore, even if it were to be transmissible to humans, cooking of meat and pasteurisation of milk would kill the virus. Milk from an infected area is required to be pasteurised for animal disease control purposes.