Action by the FSA representing UK meat processors, in conjunction with representatives of other EU Member States (MS) that hold similar views appears to be gaining momentum with the European Commission and its advisers. The FSA hopes that new research and a growing evidence base will be enough to convince legislators that a change in the law is appropriate.
"Things are moving and moving quicker than we thought," Javier Dominguez, the FSA's deputy veterinary director and head of strategy (hygiene and microbiology), said at a meat processing conference last month. He reckoned a change to the rules could be achieved in around four to five years.
In an interview with Food Manufacture in March, FSA chief executive Tim Smith had feared the time frame for change was likely to be between five and 10 years, which he described as "alarmingly long".
Britain's abattoirs and primary meat processors would like to move to a more risk-based approach to inspection of their plants, similar to that in place for other high-risk food manufacturing operations. However, under the EU's present Meat Official Controls, inspections in meat plants are prescriptive, involving costly sampling by official inspectors. A change to EU legislation is necessary before any change could be introduced, and this has faced considerable opposition from vested interests in some MS.
"It is time for the industry to take responsibility for the food inspection techniques," said Dominguez. He put the costs of inspection for the UK's 1,080 slaughter house and cutting plants at £30.4M proportionately far higher than the £111M for inspections of almost 570,000 other food production and retail outlets in the UK.
While the hazards in meat plants are microbiological in nature, all too often inspections were concerned with looking for issues such as liver fluke, which represented a quality rather than a public health issue, he argued. Also, he said, extensive handling by meat inspectors often resulted in greater cross-contamination between carcasses.
"We are keen to have an inspection regime that is more appropriate to those hazards," said Dominguez. "So, we have a programme of work to see how we can change that system of meat controls."