At its June board meeting, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) debated the operation and purpose of the current Meat Charging Discount Regime.
FSA had previously considered removing the small abattoir discount, but according to the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS), 40% of small-medium sized abattoirs would close without the discount, and according to National Craft Butchers, all its small abattoir members would close.
However, during the June meeting, FSA chair Susan Jebb and other members of the board recognised the importance of small abattoirs, and suggested how support could be used as an incentive to raise welfare standards and improve compliance.
A paper previously presented to the board had set out a rationale for continuing support to parts of the sector, based on its value to diversity in farming and consumer choice.
The paper found that in 2024, 99% of poultry throughput was handled within large abattoirs and 72% of red meat was processed in large facilities (using throughput of each premises to define small, medium and large). Small abattoirs contributed less than 1% of total throughput in both the poultry and red meat sectors, despite representing 21% of abattoir premises.
Between these two groups, ‘medium-sized’ abattoirs, primarily red meat, have a mixture of business models and markets. Medium-sized red meat operations make up around 58% of the total number of abattoirs and 29% of the total throughput. Given the diversity of business models in this grouping, the paper said throughput alone may not be the ideal mechanism for classifying these to articulate their wider benefits.
“The Board acknowledged the value of continued support for small and some medium-sized abattoirs in the interests of consumers, businesses, and the wider rural economy.”
Susan Jebb, FSA”
Susan Jebb, FSA chair, said: “Our vital food safety and animal welfare checks, which are required by law, play a crucial role in protecting public health and supporting exports. For many years we’ve provided support for abattoirs via a discount on our charges, which we’re currently evaluating.
“Evidence presented to the Board, gathered through extensive engagement and economic analysis, showed that smaller businesses face a disproportionately greater cost of regulation and the importance of the discount to their viability. The Board acknowledged the value of continued support for small and some medium-sized abattoirs in the interests of consumers, businesses, and the wider rural economy.
“The Board discussed how this support could also be targeted to recognise the importance of other factors including compliance to standards, animal welfare and innovation, and asked officials to continue to engage with stakeholders to develop proposals for a potential new scheme.
“We will revisit this in a future board meeting to determine our final advice to ministers, who will ultimately take a decision on the future of any support.”
BMPA to “monitor discussions”
Nick Allen, CEO of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), commented: “This will add to food price inflation for shoppers, and it will render our exports less competitive against competitor countries, which benefit from far more efficient, modern and cheaper systems of controls.
“We have previously highlighted the opacity of the system of charging, which we believe means that the industry is funding not just direct costs associated with statutory food safety inspections but also other, unrelated, overheads of the FSA. BMPA wrote to the FSA earlier this year calling for urgent reform and modernisation of a system that is currently inefficient, riddled with duplication and behind the curve in employing proven technology that could transform how these services are delivered.
“We will be monitoring discussions to make sure they don’t create unfair competition with how they define a small abattoir, and also that dual standards don’t start to apply. BMPA will also be pushing hard to ensure that, if a discount is given to an abattoir, that plant must be able to demonstrate a good record of compliance.
“This is important, because it’s the large abattoirs that have the best compliance systems in place and the best record of regulatory compliance. Their major retail clients demand nothing less. And this is why the FSA decision on the discount will effectively penalise good practice.”
