South Lanarkshire Council v Errington Cheese Limited [2018] Scot SC LAN 42 – S 9 FSA – articles 7 and 14 GFLR.
1) a food (cheese) sample containing a pathogenic E.coli was unsafe and so too, by virtue of article 14.6 GFLR, it is presumed is the whole of the batch from which the sample was taken.
- this was so, applying the precautionary principle in article 7 GFLR, even though the pathogenicity was only potential.
2) it could not be assumed that similar food in different batches from an infected one were also infected when testing found no harmful E.coli therein and where a good safety management system was in place to prevent cross-contamination.
- to hold otherwise would not be proportionate under the precautionary principle.
3) applying the precautionary principle, food containing a strain of E.coli not known to have caused human illness was to be considered potentially pathogenic and unsafe given the uncertainty and potential for severe disease. – but this did not apply where the strain of E.coli was known to be non-pathogenic.
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