Call to Get Tough on Food Fraud

A report issued over the last week has called on the British government and food safety agencies to get tough on food fraud.

In the wake of the horse meat scandal that swept across Europe earlier this year, the report from Prof Chris Elliott said that the authorities needed to start putting the needs of the consumer and food safety first.

“UK consumers have access to perhaps the safest food in the world and all those
involved in supplying food and for developing and enforcing legislation should be
commended for what has been achieved,” Prof Elliott, Professor of Food Safety and Director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast said in his report.

“However, our focus now urgently needs to turn to tackling food crime.”

The report calls for zero tolerance on food fraud and minor dishonesties to be discouraged.

Prof Elliott said the response to major dishonesties has to be punitive.

He called on the government and the food industry to share the burden of cast in the research needed to clampdown on food fraud because the cost to the sector could be immense.

He said that there should be a systems approach to make it much more difficult for criminals to operate in food networks by introducing new measures to check, test and investigate any suspicious activity. He said that ultimately those caught perpetrating criminal activity must be severely punished by the law to send a clear message to those thinking of conducting similar criminal activity not to operate in ‘our space’.

The call for tougher action in the UK over food fraud comes just at the time when 21 people have been arrested in France because meat from horses that had been used by a pharmaceutical company had been found on the market.

The report in the French newspaper Figaro said that the meat from at least 30 horses that are believed to have come from a pharmaceutical company’s laboratory had illegally entered the food chain.

Among those arrested were the head of a slaughter house, a horse trading company and butchers in Southern France and Northern Spain.

We would like to wish our readers and advertisers a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year. The next newsletter will appear on 2 January.