Labelling policy will not be returned to FSA
Food minister George Eustice told Food Manufacture magazine he was not minded to reverse the decision to transfer labelling policy from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to the FSA, a change the Conservative-led coalition implemented soon after winning power in 2010.
“There isn’t really any evidence of that: the failure [of ‘horsegate’] wasn’t that we weren’t developing the right tests; the failure was on the enforcement side," said Eustice. The government would wait to see Elliott’s final report – expected to be published later this month (June) – before officially responding, he added.
‘Don’t accept the argument’
“But we don’t accept the argument that previous machinery of government changes that were made contributed to this problem in any way.”
Eustice spoke at the British Meat Processors Association annual conference in London last month.
However, talking to Food Manufacture, FSA chief executive Catherine Brown was quite clear that its board wanted labelling policy returned to the Agency. “We think there are strong links between labelling authenticity and food safety and [the FSA board’s] view is that it would be best returned.”
Eustice said: “The reason we set up the Elliott review is that it is important to make sure we learn lessons from this incident and ensure we are not going to have future problems. It is fair to say there are three key things that came out of his [interim] report.
Sharing intelligence
“The first was the importance of better co-ordination between government agencies and developing an intelligence hub, so where problems are evident there is a very quick and rapid process for sharing intelligence … I’m pleased to say we are already doing that, we are not waiting for his final report.”
Eustice highlighted Elliott’s second key finding, which was that retailers should take a much closer interest in their supply chain. “I think it is fair to say they have definitely done that.”
Lastly, he spoke about product testing. “One of the things that DEFRA has been working on with the FSA is developing new tests … that can verify the provenance of meat and where it comes from.”
