‘Complacent’ food manufacturers could spark another horsemeat scandal

15-Jan-2014 - Last updated on 15-Jan-2014 at 13:13 GMT

Complacency among food businesses is leaving the industry vulnerable to another horsemeat scandal

A horsemeat scandal is likely to happen again because food manufacturers are complacent about managing their supply chains and don’t have proper records, according to the boss of supply chain consultancy firm Achilles.

Adrian Chamberlain, Achilles ceo, told FoodManufacture.co.uk – on the first anniversary of the horsemeat scandal – that the majority of food manufacturers had not responded to the scandal. That left the industry vulnerable to food safety and fraud threats, he said.

“Another scandal will arrive because not enough has been done [in the wake of the last one],” Chamberlain claimed. “Supply chains are constantly moving and records become out of date.

“If you are not constantly keeping up to date with your whole supply chain it is likely a scandal will happen again. The risk is increasing because globalisation has led to people constantly looking for more suppliers.”

Chamberlain added that complacency among many food manufacturers could add up to create an industry constantly under threat of food safety issues.

“If everyone hasn’t asked questions of every tier of their supply chains it is pointless asking them by the time you get down to a dairy or an abattoir.”

Could be doing more

Although Chamberlain agreed it was difficult for UK firms to police a Romanian abattoir or a dairy in Wisconsin, and that it was impossible to fully eradicate risk from the supply chain, there was a lot more that the industry could be doing, he said.

“Food manufacturers should upgrade to automation [using supply chain management systems] and adopt technologies where they can map out rigorously what the first tier is doing. It needs to be in a collaborative way – like the Elliott report called for.”

There also need to be more audits to check what second and third tier suppliers are doing, he added.

Businesses are reluctant to make these changes because they fear it would ruin current business relationships if they moved from paper systems, as it would suggest a lack of trust with long-standing suppliers, Chamberlain warned.

Unaware of who their suppliers are

Consequently some food firms are unaware of exactly who their suppliers are because they are keeping poor paper records instead of mapping out their whole supply chain and adopting a collaborative online system, he added.

But he believed that if some of the bigger food businesses adopted his recommended approach it could be enough to influence the rest of the industry to follow suit.

“We need two or three big name [food] manufacturers to get together and to work collaboratively and say that between them they are going to map out their supply chains. Then there could be more of an impulsion for the rest of the industry to do this.”

He added that in doing this companies would discover that they probably had a lot of the same suppliers and that was it in their best interests to map supply chains together.

“It would enable them to be more competitive and work towards certified standards,” he added.

More than 80% of food and drink manufacturers said the horsemeat scandal had not affected the way they managed information about their suppliers. Just over half still rely on paper records and 40% have never mapped out their entire supply chain to find out exactly who their suppliers are, according to research commissioned by Achilles – and carried out by independent consultancy IFF.

Despite this, 60% of food manufacturers said they were very confident that the way they managed their supply chain allowed them to manage risk effectively.

However, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) claimed the industry had the proper procedures in place to manage risk.

Barbara Gallani, director of regulation, science & health at the FDF, said: “The industry has robust traceability and assurance systems in place, which include risk registers, audits and testing. The horsemeat incident at the beginning of 2013 highlighted the need for greater collaboration across the food supply chain, and with regulators, to help businesses stay alert to the potential for fraud.”

The FDF is committed to building a joint strategy with government and enforcement bodies to combat food fraud, she added.

Meanwhile, Food Manufacture will be hosting a debate: ‘Horsemeat – one year on – could it happen again?’ at 2pm Monday March 24 at this year’s Foodex event.

For more information or to propose debate topics, email ebq.nqql@jeoz.pbz