Food safety needs a credible inspection regime

Food safety matters. We need to cut through the jargon in corporate strategies and stand up for properly resourced and independent inspection of the food we eat.


Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has published its corporate strategy for the period up to April 2019. The document claims that "to put the consumer at the heart of what we do, we need to understand what matters to consumers in relation to food. Consumers have told us that trust is essential for FSS, so we need to earn and keep that trust."

They helpfully, if alarmingly, remind us that food safety is a significant health issue in Scotland. They estimate that there are approximately 43,000 cases of foodborne infectious intestinal disease (IID) annually, leading to 5,800 GP visits and 500 hospital admissions. Just one example is Campylobacter, with between 55‐75% of all reported cases of Campylobacter infection in Scotland associated with a chicken source. A significant proportion of fresh chicken on retail sale in the UK is contaminated with the pathogen.

The FSS is directly responsible for official meat controls and provides guidance to local authorities who are supposed to deliver other inspections. The strategy seeks to reassure us that "protecting public health remains our key objective."

So far so good. However, later in the paper we are told that, "We will review these programmes so that they are proportionate and do not place undue burdens either on the industries we regulate or on taxpayers."

Based on past experience this sounds like code for further deregulation of meat inspection. Until recently the FSS was part of the U.K. Food Standards Agency. They have just published a document: “Regulating Our future”, in which they announce an intention to introduce a free ride for businesses who’ve passed an assessment visit sometime in the last few years or allow approved companies to provide assurance of food hygiene standards alongside local authorities. In short, the FSA are going to reduce meat and other food inspection and hand over responsibility to industry. 


In fact, FSS are already going down this road with white meat by replacing independent FSS poultry meat inspectors with plant employed poultry inspection assistants. When inspection probably costs little more than a penny a bird, this is short-sighted in the extreme.

The FSA have used 'proportionate' and 'undue burdens' in the past as justification for deregulation and we must be suspicious that the FSS review is heading in the same direction. The meat industry is a powerful lobby and their need to maximise profit has often triumphed over consumer protection.

We should be equally concerned over the capacity of local authorities to meet their obligations in relation to food safety. Environmental health departments have been the subject of significant cuts in recent years and many are struggling to undertake regular inspections of food premises. The review could also impact on their roles.

As always with corporate strategies you need to look beyond the fine words and look at the actions. The review of regulatory programmes is one to watch carefully.

Good food for everyone

We have plenty of land in Scotland, and plenty of sea, and plenty of skilled people, scientists and innovators. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have plenty of good food for everyone.

That is the key message from the launch of the Scottish Food Coalition’s report: ‘Plenty: Food, Farming and Health in a New Scotland’ at UNISON House today. The coalition brings together a wide range of organisations that have an interest in developing a more progressive food policy in Scotland.

UNISON Scotland represents a wide range of workers in the food industry. From those who inspect food production at source and regulate the safety of food operations – to those who cook and serve food, particularly in our schools and hospitals. We also have a wider concern to ensure that food policy contributes to a more equal society that protects our environment. Our Food for Good Charter represents the approach we would like to see food policy take in future.

Our members working with food face significant pressures. From light touch regulation of meat inspection at Food Standards Scotland, to cuts in environmental health departments, food safety is being compromised. Catering staff are also trying to produce nutritious meals on ever smaller budgets. In our last member survey, most workers described the negative impact of spending cuts on the quality and quantity of the food they provided.

Our current food system is characterised by inequalities and exploitation. People face the double burden of poverty and ill health, whilst our natural resources, animals, and workforce are exploited. Today’s report covers four broad areas:

1. The food system should value people. By taking action to prevent food poverty through the benefit system, to ensuring all employers pay at least the Scottish Living Wage. Equally important is creating democratic structures to facilitate public engagement that challenges the power of corporations.
2. We need sustainable food production that ends the negative environment impacts on the food system and our climate. Championing CAP reform and properly enforcing food and environmental legislation by taking a whole system approach to the impact of food on climate change.
3. The Scottish diet wins few accolades and we can do much more to improve our food culture. Food purchased with public money should be nutritionally balanced and sustainably sourced - joining up school catering with the curriculum and the community. In the private sector, caterers should be required to report on nutritional composition and pay a levy on the difference between their sales and national nutritional targets.
4. We need to cut the length of food supply chains, creating a better connection to our food. We should strengthen planning to support diversity in town centres, including farmers markets and safeguard land for growing food. Encouraging community land ownership and community-connected agriculture, including allotments.

To drive these changes forward, the report proposes primary legislation that enshrines the Right to Food in legislation. It should include the creation of a statutory Food Commission that provides oversight and scrutiny of our food system – reporting directly to parliament.

For too long food policy has been addressed in silos, with the big commercial producers having the dominant say. This report is a first attempt at building a broader consensus that joins up the strands of policy into a coherent whole.

 

Food safety is the priority for Scots

Scots want slaughter houses to be independently inspected by government meat safety inspectors, not handed over to the industry to regulate themselves.

UNISON has commissioned independent pollsters Ispos MORI to find out what people living in Scotland think about how we ensure the food we eat is safe. This follows a number of food scandals and the news that 73% of chickens in the UK tested positive for the presence of the campylobacter, the most common source of food poisoning.

The report shows that almost all Scots (98%) believe that official slaughter houses should be inspected to ensure they are meeting food safety and quality standards; the vast majority of Scots (95%) believe that slaughterhouses should continue to operate to official standards; three quarters of Scots also believe slaughterhouses should be inspected independently (75%), and majority of Scots (70%) also agree that standards are more likely to be met if they are carried out by government inspectors.

So that is very clear. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming view is that independent inspection is a very good thing. Sadly, governments and the meat industry are running with a different agenda. There is continued pressure from Europe to de-regulate meat inspection with the active support of the UK Government and the Food Standards Agency. The Scottish Government went along with cutting safety standards recently when they approved the visual only inspection of pigs. This means tumours and abscesses will be minced into the sausages and pies we eat. The meat industry lobby has clearly been busy in Scotland as well!

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, said the FSA had been ‘captured’ by industry interests. "This is a sad day for British food policy. A quarter of a century after the British learned of the extent of contamination of poultry, we are back again with unacceptable levels of food-borne pathogens. Then, it was salmonella. Now, it’s campylobacter."

This month meat inspectors have been transferred into a new Scottish Government Agency, Food Standards Scotland. During the horsemeat scandal Scottish Ministers were able to blame 'Westminster', even though the regulations on food safety are devolved. Now the physical inspection is managed by a devolved institution as well.

Meat inspectors deal with the food processing stage, but we rely on council environment health officers to inspect retail food operations. As a consequence of council cuts they are now thin on the ground and sampling and inspections have also been slashed

So, this report is a timely reminder to the Scottish Government that food safety is a priority for Scots. Scots believe the meat trade should be independently inspected and regulated, and they think that meat inspection should be carried out by government inspectors. This is too important to get wrong. We have been concerned about the lighter touch regulation which has been promoted across UK and EU meat trades. The Scottish Government’s new agency Food Standards Scotland must ensure we maintain a strong, well regulated, independent meat inspection regime.

 

Food safety abandoned to company profits

With more than 60% of chickens in the UK infected with a food poisoning bug, you might have expected the UK’s food safety watchdog to be tightening up inspections. Instead they are allowing the meat industry to inspect their own poultry, akin to paying students to mark their own exam papers.

Since 1994, the FSA at the behest of the meat industry has been deregulating the independent inspection of poultry. 37 of the 87 poultry plants throughout the UK have employed their own meat inspectors and the FSA’s latest plans will finish the job.

This comes after the Scottish Parliament approved the visual only inspection of pigs, bringing Scotland in line with the rest of the UK. This means tumours and abscesses will be minced into the sausages and pies we eat. The meat industry lobby works here as well!

Meat inspectors across Europe have warned that the latest measures would place public health in grave danger. According to FSA figures, more than 60% of chickens in the UK are infected with the campylobacter food poisoning bug, which on average kills 110 people each year and results in 22,000 people being treated in hospital. As we highlighted last month, the FSA was heavily criticised for backtracking on a decision to 'name and shame' retailers and abattoirs during a year-long testing programme on retail chicken for campylobacter.

This is all in addition to food fraud, another issue the FSA has ducked. Food mis-labelling is widespread, as is the practice of substituting premium commodity products in whole or in part with cheaper ingredients.

Giving the industry carte blanche to inspect its own products is yet another cynical attempt at privatisation which would save the industry money at the expense of public safety. Nobody should have to worry about eating food containing tumours, faeces, abscesses and other contaminants.

There has been no consultation in Scotland or the rest of the UK over these plans. Official controls currently in place to protect consumers from eating contaminated meat, cost each person in the UK just 38p per year.  A small price to pay for safe food.

Many experts in this field believe that the FSA has been captured by the meat industry. In June this year, I gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee on the Food (Scotland) Bill that will create Food Standards Scotland. I highlighted the work of Scottish meat inspectors in preventing over a million instances of diseased animal carcasses from entering the food chain. The FoI data we released included 100,000 chicken tumours. I said, "This shows what a vital job meat inspectors do. We are calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that Food Standards Scotland is focused on safety of consumers not food industry profits. Meat inspectors and vets must be able to carry out thorough independent inspections, free from food industry influence."

This latest plan shows that the FSA, as currently constituted, has abandoned the consumer. When the Food (Scotland) Bill is debated at Stage 1 in the coming weeks, MSPs should ensure that the new Scottish organisation puts food safety before profits. Meanwhile, everyone in the UK is at risk.

Staff who keep our food safer deserve a pay rise

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) hasn't had the best of press recently, now they have forced their staff out on strike and refused to resolve the dispute at ACAS.

There has been growing concern over the way the FSA handles food safety across the UK. It's part of the reason why Scotland is in the process of establishing a separate body, although many of the problems are likely to remain here as well.

A recent survey for the Food Standards Agency showed 59% of raw chicken bought at supermarkets contained the potentially deadly bacteria Campylobacter. As an article in the Scotsman put it, "After a decade of trying to get the poultry industry to clean up its act, the Food Standards Agency had promised to name and shame the worst offenders in the first quarter of its year-long survey. However, pressure from the industry has led the FSA to back down".

Few lessons also appear to have been learned from the horsemeat scandal. The Guardian discovered that the publication of the inquiry into the scandal has been blocked amid government concerns that the public would be frightened by the idea that criminals were still able to interfere with their food.

UNISON members in the FSA will be taking strike action on 26th and 27th August. For the second year in a row, the FSA imposed a pay rise of 0.75% on our members, while most other public sector workers have been offered a 1% increase. Even as late as last week, UNISON asked them to reconsider and go to ACAS for arbitration, but they refused.

The primary job of meat ispectors is to ensure the meat we eat is slaughtered safely and that contaminated meat doesn't enter the food chain. Since April 2012 meat inspectors and vets have prevented over a million instances of diseased animal carcasses from entering the food chain in Scotland. This included:

659,000 instances of the Liver Fluke parasite

427,000 instances of pneumonia in red meat carcasses

100,000 instances of adult tape worm

100,000 tumours in chickens

1100 instances of parasitic lung worm in cattle, from entering the food chain.

We all know from hard experience in many sectors that light touch regulation doesn't work. It's a message that hasn't yet been understood by the UK and Scottish government's. Independent chicken inspections have already been diluted and the Scottish Government has recently done the same for pigs. Meat inspectors, official veterinarians and support staff cost each person in the country just 38 pence per year. A small price to pay for safer food.

To add insult to injury they are being offered pay rises below even the miserly government pay policy. Staff in slaughterhouses work in some of the most dirty, difficult and stressful conditions, surrounded by blood and faeces, to keep the public safe from contaminated meat. They deserve a fair pay rise.

 

 

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Chicken contamination puts profits before safety

A recent survey for the Food Standards Agency showed 59% of raw chicken bought at supermarkets contained the potentially deadly bacteria Campylobacter, with 16% being heavily contaminated. This demonstrates, yet again, that the light touch regulation favoured by the UK and Scottish government's is not protecting the consumer.

Campylobacter is the most common form of food poisoning in the UK, affecting more than a quarter of a million people every year. It causes stomach upsets, vomiting and diarrhoea and is responsible for more than 100 deaths a year, costing the economy £900m.

Stephen Jardine highlights the regulatory failure in his Scotsman article, "After a decade of trying to get the poultry industry to clean up its act, the Food Standards Agency had promised to name and shame the worst offenders in the first quarter of its year-long survey. However, pressure from the industry has led the FSA to back down". He concludes "Action will only come when culprits are named and shamed, forcing them to act tough with suppliers to protect their market share. Then, and only then, will things really start to change."

Even that bastion of the free market, The Daily Mail, was outraged, "The survey results are a damning indictment of supermarkets, farmers and processors who are putting customers at risk every day of the week"

Food safety experts have highlighted the close links between the industry and regulators. Erik Millstone, professor of science policy at the University of Sussex said, "The FSA has failed to keep its promise to the British public. This means that consumers can no longer trust the FSA to put the interest of consumers ahead of those of the food industry."

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, said the FSA had been ‘captured’ by industry interests. "This is a sad day for British food policy. A quarter of a century after the British learned of the extent of contamination of poultry, we are back again with unacceptable levels of food-borne pathogens. Then, it was salmonella. Now, it’s campylobacter."

In June this year, I gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee on the Food (Scotland) Bill that will create Food Standards Scotland. I highlighted the work of Scottish meat inspectors in preventing over a million instances of diseased animal carcasses from entering the food chain. The FoI data we released included 100,000 chicken tumours. I said, "This shows what a vital job meat inspectors do. We are calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that Food Standards Scotland is focussed on safety of consumers not food industry profits. Meat inspectors and vets must be able to carry out thorough independent inspections, free from food industry influence."

Meat inspectors and environmental health staff have been warning of the implications of deregulation and cuts in food safety for years. To add to the demoralisation caused by unheeded warnings, meat inspectors are now suffering real term cuts to their pay. They are not even getting the miserly government pay policy. Meat inspectors, official veterinarians and support staff employed by the Food Standards Agency have therefore voted for industrial action. That action will have a serious impact on food output.

The food industry hasn't done enough to clean up its act and deregulation has simply encouraged them to put profits before consumer safety. The FSA has been complicit in this process, being far too close to the industry. The Scottish Government has an opportunity through the establishment of Food Standards Scotland to take a new approach. Early signs are not good with the Scottish Parliament passing regulations that allow visual only inspection of pigs.

Hopefully, this latest survey will cause ministers to think again and put the consumer first.

 

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Creating a real good food nation

Increasing access for everyone to good quality food to improve Scotland’s diet and food culture is the right objective. Tackling food poverty and strengthening food safety must be as big a priority as the commercial benefits to the food and drink industry.

The Scottish Government's new discussion document 'Becoming a Good Food Nation' includes:

•Creating a Scottish Food Commission to champion the importance of food to Scotland’s health, environment, economy and quality of life

•Promoting good food choices to consumers, enlisting the support of retailers, food producers and public bodies

•Having Scotland’s public sector lead by example with the NHS, local authorities and Scottish Government signing up to offer fresh, seasonal, local and sustainable produce

•Developing a specific children’s food policy in recognition of the impact of food on the health of young people and their ability to influence society’s behaviour for generations to come

•Working with communities to encourage the production and sale of more locally grown food

•Realising the economic benefits of a better domestic food culture for Scotland’s food and drink sector.

Scotland has one of the poorest diet-related health records in the world with obesity alone set to cost between £3bn and £5bn by 2030. Consumption of fruit and vegetables among the poorest 20% of Scots has fallen by a fifth since the recession and the subsequent welfare cuts kicked in. One third of cancers are diet related. So Food Nation is rightly about more than a new marketing strategy. In this context, it is at questionable if the initiative should come under the farming rather than the public health minister.

The discussion document broadly reflects the ideas promoted in UNISON Scotland's 'Food for Good' charter. We first launched this in 2008 and updated it last year, so government recognition is welcome.

We particularly agree that the public sector must lead by example, not only through public service catering, but also through procurement. However, financial pressures on school and hospital kitchens are making it very difficult to maintain standards. UNISON surveyed members working in catering and found that 54% say there have been major or severe cuts in the last 3-4 years. FoI requests showed that less than half of food is bought locally and off site cook chill catering is on the increase to cut costs.

The discussion document emphasises how well Scottish food and drink brands are doing worldwide, although whisky remains the dominant export. What the document doesn't recognise is the importance of strong regulation and food safety. It takes only one food scandal to wreck a brand and shortcuts here make no sense. For example, the Scottish Government has only recently pushed new regulations through parliament that will allow meat producers to mince thousands of pig tumours and abscesses into our pies and sausages. It's a bad food nation that puts production speed and profit before safety and quality.

So, let's welcome this initiative, while recognising that we have a lot more to do before we can claim to actually be a good food nation.

 

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