The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) are announcing today that they will be undertaking a review of meat cutting premises and cold stores. The review, which will be established later this month, comes in the wake of serious non-compliance issues identified at cutting plants operated by 2 Sisters Food Group and Russell Hume and will be industry wide.

image expired

Picture credit ITV News

Heather Hancock, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency and Ross Finnie Chair of Food Standards Scotland, jointly commented:

“In the last six months the FSA and FSS have faced two serious incidents involving major players in the meat sector. People rightly expect food businesses to keep to the rules, rules designed to keep consumers safe and to sustain public trust in food - and food businesses have a duty to follow the regulations.

“In the light of these recent incidents, the FSA and FSS will be taking forward reviews of cutting plants and cold stores used for meat. Further details will be published later this month and the results will be fully available to the public.”

Russell Hume investigation

The Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland investigation continues and the areas of interest for the investigation include the extended use of use by dates, and the food safety management system that the business has in place.

image expired

Picture credit ITV News

Jason Feeney, Chief Executive of the FSA said:

“Our investigation into the major non-compliances we found at the Russell Hume plants in England and Scotland is intensifying. We have already stopped these plants producing meat products, have ensured the withdrawal and disposal of the products and now we are looking at the root cause of the incident and any culpability. The investigation is looking into all aspects of the business to establish more details about the serious and widespread problems that we identified. This will then determine whether additional enforcement action should be taken.  Therefore we will be unable to make any further comments on the detail of the investigation.

“It remains the case that there is no indication that people have become ill from eating meat supplied by Russell Hume and we continue to assess the situation working with the relevant public health bodies.”

Public Trust

Despite this the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) Biannual Public Attitudes Tracker results available here tracking survey show that over 70% of the British public still trust the accuracy of food labels & the authenticity of the food's origin or quality.

The top food safety issues of concern for respondents were: Food hygiene when eating out ,food poisoning and chemicals from the environment, such as lead, in food & food additives.

The top wider issues of concern were the amount of sugar in food, food waste, food prices, and animal welfare (43%).