The director of the state's meat inspection program says her department will be gathering samples in the next few weeks from venison processed this past fall under new state recommendations.
The state Agriculture Department published the recommendations to encourage more precautions in butchering venison. State meat inspection director Andrea Grondahl said they are not mandatory.
Under the guidelines, Grondahl said, butchers are advised to regularly check the grinder head when they are processing large batches of venison, to make sure lead pieces are not caught in the grinder to contaminate meat.
Grondahl said samples from the fall harvest will be analyzed to see whether the processing guidelines have reduced the amount of lead in venison.
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