I don’t know what ‘smokie’ sheep meat is but willing to find out.

Apparently, a Ridley Road butcher in the UK has been fined for illegally selling a West African delicacy which is outlawed by the European Union for being unsafe.

Sultan Mohammed was found with 18 portioned bags of scorched skin-on sheep meat bags, known as “smokies”, in a chiller in Islam Halal Meat Ltd, when environmental health officers inspected the shop on August 6, 2013.

The meat was seized and destroyed.

“Smokie” meat is made by scorching unskinned sheep or goat carcasses with a blowtorch after slaughter and hanging.

They are often produced in very unhygienic conditions, intentionally bypassing official controls, breaching specific waste disposal regulations and disregarding animal welfare rules.

Because of this the meat poses significant risk to human and animal health and is not considered fit for human consumption because of a risk of diseases like scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalitis, E. coli or salmonella.

EU Community Hygiene Regulations do not permit the production of “smokies.”