Smokie (food)

Furthermore, butchering an ungulate carcass with the skin intact and unsterilized considerably raises the risks for induction of fecal coliform bacteria such as E. coli or Salmonella into the meat and is thus banned in the UK by law.

[citation needed] This risk is heightened because the smokies are generally produced in covert (and often grossly unsanitary) butchering facilities and handled without proper sanitary procedures.

Furthermore, the goats and sheep used are traditionally old, worn-out or lame animals bought inexpensively from milk and wool farms and are not intended for human consumption.

On 29 March 2005, and again on 6 April, the BBC television program Watchdog publicised the sale of smokies in London,[1] two years after the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) told a conference about their production in Wales.

When asked, the European Food Standards Agency stated evidence was "insufficient to support the conclusion that the burnt fleece skin-on sheep carcasses produced by the method described were suitable for human consumption.