Cuts to councils and meat hygiene inspection hitting food safety

“The threat to the public from contaminated food stems from a toxic combination of cuts to council trading standards, environmental health and meat hygiene inspection” said Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government.   “When combined with the Government’s willingness to allow the slaughter and food processing industry to police itself, consumers are at risk of a repeat of the horsemeat scandal” she warned.
 
The warning comes in the light of the latest Which report – “How safe is your food” – published today (14 January), which reveals some local authorities are struggling to ensure local businesses comply with hygiene rules.
 
Only last week the union published details showing that councils in England had been forced to cut almost £11bn from their budgets in the first two years of the coalition government. Between 2010/11 and 2012/13 total government support for local authorities in England fell by £8.8bn – from £70.1bn to £61.3bn – a drop of almost 12.5%. Inflation and budget pressures added another £2bn of costs resulting in local authorities cutting budgets further. Service expenditure by local authorities in England fell by £10.8bn, from £91.1bn to £80.3bn.
 
Heather Wakefield went on to say:
 
“These budget cuts have led to tough choices in councils across the country and trading standards and environmental health have been hit hard.
 
“Light touch inspection favoured by the Government is simply not good enough to ensure food safety. The public has a right to know that  the food on supermarket shelves is labelled correctly and safe to eat.  That meansrigorous regulation and inspection, as well as enough well-trained trading standards and environmental health officers to police the food industry.
 
“Deregulation of meat inspection is likely to increase the likelihood of further scandals in the future adding to the risk to consumers.  From June 2014, meat inspectors – the people who protect our food – will no longer beable to physically inspect pigs for abscesses, tumours and faeces in slaughter houses across the country.
 
“The next deregulation phase is poultry and then cows, sheep, deer and goats. If all physical inspection ends, the food the public eats could contain an abscess or tumour minced in with spaghetti and processed food products.”