DEREGULATION NOT AN OPTION FOR MEAT INDUSTRY

27 Feb 2013

A presentation at the Food Standards Agency to explore ways to ‘tackle the burden’ of EU legislation is wholly inappropriate in the wake of the meat crisis, UNISON said today.

The UK’s largest union said that stronger, tighter regulation was needed to restore consumer confidence in the meat industry and protect the health of the public.

Ben Priestley, UNISON national officer said:

“Given the ongoing horsemeat scandal, it is wholly inappropriate that discussions on how to ‘reduce the burden’ of EU legislation should be taking place at the FSA. Regulation is not a burden; it is there to protect the consumer, and to keep the public safe.

“This latest scandal to hit the meat industry is evidence enough that what we need is more, stronger legislation – including a daily inspection regime – in place to ensure that a scandal on this scale cannot be allowed to happen again.”

UNISON has hit out against the light-touch regulation that has persisted since the mid-2000s, and has called for: The reintroduction of daily official inspections of all licensed meat cutting plants and cold storage facilities to ensure public health and consumer confidence. The testing of horses killed in the UK for the drug BUTE, and for the dangerous parasite, ‘Trichinela Spiralis’. A permanent move away from ‘light-touch regulation’, including the inspection – official or independent – of food manufacturing premises.

ENDS NOTES TO EDITORS

The presentation ‘How to get what you want in EU negotiations’, from the Better Regulation Executive Europe Team, will tomorrow (28/02/13) address the FSA on ‘how departments can influence EU legislation’, and discuss how they can ‘support the FSA to minimise the burdens of EU legislation’.

See this release on the UNISON UK website

.