Meat inspection reforms need beefing up, say processors

Back-slapping by Food Standards Agency is branded an insult

By Joe Watson

Published:

The quango running Britain's meat inspection service has been told its plan to transform its operations does not go far enough.

Scottish abattoir owners have hit out at the Food Standards Agency after its board applauded the Meat Hygiene Service for exceeding three operating performance targets.

Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers president Allan Jess said the “unequivocal support" indicated by the FSA board for the MHS was “a bit hard to take" as his members were facing an 8% increase in inspection charges that they viewed as unjustified.

He added: “Our assessment of current MHS inefficiency and over-manning is that it's costing us an average of £10 per cattle beast. Back-slapping congratulations by the FSA board over a 90p per livestock unit saving in processing costs, of which Scottish meat plants have yet to see a penny, are an insult to our members, many of whom are fighting hard to maintain the meat sector's processing capacity at present."

Mr Jess said the MHS reforms had to deliver realistic manning levels and far greater cost reductions than the £4.4million seen so far. The FSA had also to work more closely with the European Commission to secure changes to meat inspection controls that its deputy chairman Ian Reynolds recently viewed as a “waste of time".

France will in July as part of its presidency of the European Union launch a debate in Lyon on the modernisation of meat inspection. Mr Jess said both the FSA and UK Government needed to attend the event and play a full role in shaping the proportionate and risk-based meat hygiene regime that industry had long been calling for.

The FSA has, meanwhile, rejected moves to set up an independent control body to deliver meat inspection services on cost grounds.

FSA chairman Deirdre Hutton said the agency recognised the need for efficiency improvements at the MHS if it is to move to full cost recovery for inspection services from meat processing and cutting plants. She acknowledged it was Europe's responsibility to provide the proportionate risk-based approach to official controls that meat plant operators were looking for.

FSA chief executive Tim Smith added: “We mustn’t ever forget that maintaining safe meat remains the FSA’s first priority when it comes to the changes in meat inspection but we need to make sure that the cost of regulation and enforcement to businesses is not greater than it needs to be.”