FSA should have powers to ensure councils carry out food sampling: MPs

The Food Standards Agency should have powers to ensure all local authorities carry out some food sampling each year, MPs have said in a report on the contamination of beef products with horse and pork meat.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee also called on local authorities to adopt targeted sampling – “testing from time to time products which might be contaminated without requiring intelligence to support it”.

The committee’s principal finding was that there was a lack of clarity over the FSA’s role in responding to the issue.

It said that the agency “must be a more effective regulator of industry and be given powers to compel industry to carry out food testing when needed”.

The report recommended a number of other changes to the food regulation system in the UK, including:

  • Large retailers should be required to carry out regular DNA testing of meat ingredients for frozen and processed meat products, with the costs borne by industry and not consumers;
  • All test results should be submitted to the FSA and a summary published on the retailers’ website;
  • The present system for issuing horse passports must be changed and a single national database be established in all EU member states;
  • The Government should ensure there are sufficient, properly trained public analysts in the UK;
  • There should be better communication about the role of the FSA “so that there is no uncertainty in future about who is responsible for responding to similar incidents”; and
  • The FSA should ensure channels of communication with devolved administrations and its EU counterparts are open and encourage sharing of information.

The MPs also expressed surprise at the number of horse carcasses from the UK which tested positive for the veterinary drug bute, and said a newly introduced system for testing horses before they are released to the food system must continue.

The committee meanwhile expressed concern that no prosecutions had yet been brought as a result of the contamination affair, “despite clear evidence of organised fraud in the meat supply chain”.

Identifying and prosecuting those responsible was necessary to restore consumer confidence in the UK’s frozen meat sector, the MPs said.

Anne McIntosh MP, chair of the committee, said: “The committee agrees that ministers must be responsible for policy, but there was confusion about where responsibility lay for responding to the horse meat discovery. We urge the Government to reconsider the machinery of government changes it made in 2010 and make the FSA one step removed from the Government departments it reports to.”

She added: “The FSA must become a more efficient and effective regulator and be seen to be independent of industry. It must have the power to be able to compel industry to carry out tests when needed. It must also be more innovative in its testing regime and vigilant in ensuring every local authority carries out regular food sampling.” 

McIntosh said: “The evidence suggests a complex network of companies trading in and mislabelling beef or beef products which is fraudulent and illegal.

“We are dismayed at the slow pace of investigations and seek assurances that prosecutions will be mounted where there is evidence of fraud or illegality.”

A copy of the report can be viewed here.  

In response, Cllr Mehboob Khan, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “Councils take the safety of food very seriously and sampling is just one tool available to them. They also provide support and advice that helps the many responsible businesses understand complex food law and step in when they believe their legal duties are not being met.
 
“Inspections, particularly at high risk premises, are a critical part of their food safety monitoring but the committee’s suggestion that forcing councils to carry out random sampling would create a more ‘targeted’ system is confusing. The samples cited in the report also do not reflect the new ways that councils are reporting food safety data.”

Cllr Khan added: “Councils need to be allowed to focus their resources on using their local knowledge to target higher risk businesses rather than be dictated to by a Whitehall tick-box exercise.”

The FSA board is meanwhile considering today its initial action plan following publication of Professor Pat Troop’s final report into the agency’s response to the crisis.

The professor identified four key areas for further work in her report:

  1. The need for improved intelligence sharing and analysis across the sector;
  2. The need for the FSA to strengthen its major incident plan;
  3. Improved clarity of the role of Government departments in large complex incidents;
  4. A review of the FSA’s powers and the use of framework agreements and codes of conduct.

The last action area is to be the responsibility of the FSA’s director of legal services.