An investigation, the results of which were published in the Sunday Times newspaper yesterday, suggests the UK government's food and farming department has sold meat into the food chain from tens of thousands of cattle killed as part of strict disease control measures.

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Meat from around 28,000 cattle killed under bovine TB restrictions (88 percent of reactors slaughtered) was sold for human consumption in 2012, according to the report. Although banned by most supermarkets and processors, the meat has found its way to caterers serving public bodies such as school services and hospitals, according to the report.

Retailers and processors ban the meat on the whole due to "public health concerns," but the report suggested Defra sells meat from reactors without any labelling indicating its provenance. The Food Standards Agency said that an animal carcass is declared unfit for human consumption only if TB legions appear in more than one organ or region of the body.   

Defra dismissed the report as "irresponsible scaremongering" and said, "The Food Standards Agency has confirmed there are no known cases where someone has contracted TB from eating meat." However, some experts believe that consuming milk and meat from bTB infected cattle does present a threat to human health; human health concerns have also been used by the government to justify its badger culling policy.

Defra Chief Vet Nigel Gibbens has warned of the human health risks associated with bTB on several occasions. By way of justification for the culling policy, he warned in May that the EU could ban British cattle exports if the disease is not brought under control.

Nevertheless, a Defra spokesperson assured that, "All meat from cattle slaughtered due to bovine TB must undergo rigorous food safety checks before the meat is passed as fit for consumption. As a result, the risk is extremely low, regardless of whether or how the meat is cooked."

Defra makes an estimated £10 million each year from selling the infected carcasses of TB reactors. The money is used to regain some of the public cost of the disease and the process has been reviewed by the Food Standards Agency and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Defra officials said.

Last week, EU food health watchdog EFSA recommended improving meat inspection procedures to better protect consumers, and animal health and welfare. The recommendations were published on Thursday, and include measures to improve the surveillance of bovine tuberculosis.

Philip Mansbridge, CEO of international wildlife charity Care for the Wild, which helped with the investigation, said, "We felt people should know about this because the government are surging forward with an unpopular badger cull based on the argument that they know what's best for farmers, and for the public.

"But this scandal exposes the complete failure of their bovine TB management system, from farm to fork. Along with a catalogue of flawed justifications regarding the figures and the science, this shows that the government has no real justification for the planned cull and will use any means it can to attempt to win sympathy from an unsympathetic public."