Local authority inspections in the firing line

Local authority inspections of food businesses are expected to come under harsh criticism, when the results of a public inquiry into the largest ever outbreak of E. coli O157​ in Wales are reported back in June.According to an expert working for the inquiry, environmental health officers (EHOs) had failed to pick up serious food safety failures at the John Tudor and Son plant in Bridgend - the source of cooked meat, which caused the outbreak.

The food poisoning incident, which occurred in South Wales in September 2005, affected more than 150 people and resulted in the death of five-year-old Mason Jones.

Professor Chris Griffith, head of the Food Research & Consultancy Unit at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, said that although the plant had been inspected prior to the outbreak, a number of faults had not been picked up.

Questions were raised about what had been covered by the inspections of the Tudor plant and Bridgend’s policy on inspections generally. “I expect criticism of both,” said Griffith.

He also expected the Food Standards Agency in Wales to draw flak for its supervision, as well as local authority food procurement policy for schools and old people’s homes in the region, which were most affected by the outbreak.

Griffith told a food safety seminar at the Foodex Meatex show in Birmingham last week that the standards of local authority inspections varied across the UK and there wasn’t a standard inspection policy. He said the introduction of the Safe and Local Supplier Accreditation scheme by the food industry showed there was a lack of confidence in some inspections carried out by EHOs. “There needs to be more consistency in how inspections are carried out,” said Griffith.

The National Assembly of Wales set up the E. coli​ inquiry, chaired by Professor Hugh Pennington, in March 2006 to undertake a thorough investigation into the outbreak.

Griffith was appointed by investigators to look at incidents of cross-contamination at the plant, which are believed to have led to the outbreak. The next public hearing of the inquiry will take place on May 14.

Griffith discovered a number examples of bad practice at the plant: including the use of the same vacuum packing machine for raw and cooked meats, which was sometimes not cleaned properly after being used for raw meat packing. Deliveries and storage of raw and cooked meat were not properly segregated, said Griffith.

Griffith also found other examples of poor hygiene, poor record-keeping and poor training at the plant. As well as a slicer that had not been cleaned, he said: “Directly above the vacuum packer is a fly killer.”