Don’t privatise meat inspection: campaign bulletin Jan 04

(12/1/04) UNISON is the trade union that represents meat inspectors who work for the UK Meat Hygiene Service.

Since 2000 we have been campaigning hard to oppose plans by the European Commission and Council of Ministers to privatise meat inspection in the European Community.

Commission and Council are using the Hygiene 3 Proposal (Official Controls on Foods of Animal Origin) to push responsibility for abattoir hygiene onto meat plants and to reduce the role of independent meat inspectors, or even transfer their duties under some circumstances to the meat plants themselves.

In May 2003 MEPs threw out the most extreme of these privatisation proposals. They also voted in support of amendments to strengthen consumer safety in the Hygiene 3 proposal.

Unfortunately, Council and Commission remain undeterred and hope to force the privatisation proposals back on the agenda at the Second Reading of Hygiene 3 later this spring.

In the run up to the vote, UNISON will be intensifying our campaign to oppose privatisation and keep meat inspection in the hands of independent government inspectors.

Click here for the first of our 2004 anti-privatisation briefings

It deals with the US Department of Agriculture’s damming report on the failure of the privatised HACCP-based meat inspection system in the USA.

Please let us know if you would like any additional copies of these materials, or whether there is anybody else you think should go onto our campaign distribution list.

We hope we can count on your support in our fight to oppose privatisation and uphold consumer safety in the EU.