Major review into meat cutting plants; details unveiled
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have published details of a major review into the sites where meat products are processed and stored in the UK.
The two agencies have announced the launch of a comprehensive review of hygiene controls, with the review including unannounced inspections and audit regimes.
FSA has also stated it will work with industry to implement CCTV across cutting plants, while increasing intelligence gathering through audit data sharing pilots across industry.
It also announced “improved insight into circumstances and factors leading to non-compliances and ability to anticipate them”.
FSA’s chief executive, Jason Feeney.
Jason Feeney and Geoff Ogle, chief executives of FSA and FSS respectively, jointly commented: “We are concerned about recent instances of companies breaching hygiene rules. People rightly expect food businesses to keep to the rules, rules designed to keep consumers safe and to sustain public trust in food – and food businesses have a duty to follow the regulations. Our review will be far reaching and thorough and we will announce our initial findings in June.
“We are pleased that the meat industry representatives who we met with have pledged their full and effective engagement with the review.”
The review is aiming to increase public and stakeholder confidence in the meat industry and its regulation, improve the ability to identify non-compliance and take prompt action to minimise the risk to public health and food safety, as well as assess how the industry currently operates across the whole supply chain.
It will also focus on increasing awareness of circumstances and factors which can lead to non-compliance.
2 Sisters Food Group investigation
The agency has also published its update to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s inquiry into standards in poultry processing and the findings of its investigation into 2 Sisters Food Group.
FSA noted that in response to the inquiry, it will work with industry on a voluntary protocol for adoption of CCTV in meat processing plants and will consult on legislating to implement them if necessary.
A 2 Sisters site.
It added that it will also be running pilots to improve data and intelligence sharing across the industry and is pursuing increased investigatory powers for the National Food Crime Unit.
FSA stated that 500 hours of CCTV from the site were examined along with audit information from major retailers.
In addition, the company voluntarily ceased production at one site whilst changes were made and staff re-trained. FSA has also had a permanent presence at their cutting plants for the last four months.
Feeney said: “Our investigation found some areas for improvement but the issues were resolved promptly by the company, who co-operated fully, and at no point did we find it necessary to take formal enforcement action.
“The business has made a wide range of improvements across all their sites to improve processes. They are already publishing the outcomes of all their audits and are in the process of installing high quality CCTV across their estate that we will have full access to. These are measures we would like the whole industry to adopt.”
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