Bristol ‘far too relaxed’ on food safety

As report into horsemeat scandal released, survey from consumer watchdog Which? revealed Bristol is ranked 379 out of 395 local authorities for food safety

A Bristol MP has demanded the city council takes tougher action on food safety after a report into last year’s horsemeat scandal called for a national Food Crime Unit (FCU) to fight the trade in fraudulent foods.

Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy said the city was “far too relaxed” about food standards and, despite cuts to local budgets for such inspections, called for more to be done to avoid a repeat of the scandal which prompted yesterday’s recommendation.

The review commissioned from food security expert and Queen’s University Belfast professor Chris Elliott into the largest food fraud of recent times – the horsemeat scandal – was published yesterday after lengthy delays.

The FCU aimed to “ensure measures are put in place to further help protect consumers from any food fraud incidents in the future” he said.

He said there is a “huge incentive for the criminal to pursue food crime” which “risks system-wide proliferation if left unchecked”. He warns that the aggressive buying practices of some of the big supermarkets have got even worse since the horsemeat scandal and that their current price wars are exposing the UK to further food crime.

The report also sets out how Trading Standards departments will have suffered an average 40% cut in England and Wales over the lifetime of this parliament, with any further cuts leaving local authorities “unable to effectively protect consumers” from fraudsters.

Ms McCarthy said she had challenged the mayor George Ferguson in the summer over the level of enforcement by Bristol City Council (BCC).

A response from BCC’s regulatory services manager Nick Carter revealed less than half – just 23 – of the 50 premises deemed high risk for food standards had been visited by the council.

He added that there was a “lower consumer risk” with this type of food standards inspection – covering the labelling, description and composition of foodstuffs – than that covered by food hygiene inspections.

A study by consumer watchdog Which? in January had found Bristol came close to the bottom of a national league table for food hygiene inspections.

While it should carry out 100% of interventions on premises rated particularly “at risk”, it achieved just 17.59% of the necessary level of food standards interventions – compared to Manchester, which achieved 85%, and Liverpool, 82%.

Speaking yesterday, Ms McCarthy said that the new report from Prof Elliott showed funding cuts were badly affecting the ability of local authorities to carry out food standards inspections.

But, she added, Bristol council needed to do far more – adding that visiting just 23 of the 50 high-risk premises could not be justified.

“As we now know, criminal networks are increasingly seeing the potential for what Professor Elliott describes as huge profits and low risks” in the food industry,” she said.

“According to many commentators, it is now more profitable and considerably less risky to be involved in food fraud than in the drugs trade.

“[Prof] Elliot has shown how the impact of Government cuts have badly affected enforcement of food standards by local authorities. Bristol sits among the worst performing authorities, and only managed to visit 23 of the 50 premises classified as high risk, when they ought to have visited them all.

“I feel the council seems far too relaxed about its poor performance in comparison to other local authorities. I don’t feel that visiting just 23 of the 50 high-risk premises can be justified. Not only is it vital that consumers can have confidence in the food they eat, but there are health risks to the consumer as a consequence of food fraud.

“If Bristol wants to demonstrate it’s actually taking this issue seriously, I would like to hear what plans it has to improve enforcement before the next horsemeat scandal hits.”

All of the recommendations in the Elliott report have been accepted by the government, environment secretary Elizabeth Truss announced yesterday.

“We’re taking action to make sure that families can have absolute confidence in the food that they buy,” she said. “When a shopper picks something up from a supermarket shelf it should be exactly what it says on the label, and we’ll crack down on food fraudsters trying to con British consumers.”