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| It’s a scandal that profits come before food safety | It’s a scandal that profits come before food safety |
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| It is no surprise to Unison that two-thirds of fresh chicken in the UK is contaminated with campylobacter (Poultry industry’s dirty secret, 24 July). Back in 1994, privatisation allowed poultry meat producers to do away with independent, government-employed, poultry meat inspectors. Instead, the industry was allowed to employ its own poultry inspection assistants (PIAs). In the smaller plants, the PIA is often the plant owner. Talk about giving the fox the key to the hen house. | It is no surprise to Unison that two-thirds of fresh chicken in the UK is contaminated with campylobacter (Poultry industry’s dirty secret, 24 July). Back in 1994, privatisation allowed poultry meat producers to do away with independent, government-employed, poultry meat inspectors. Instead, the industry was allowed to employ its own poultry inspection assistants (PIAs). In the smaller plants, the PIA is often the plant owner. Talk about giving the fox the key to the hen house. |
| Meat inspection is a highly skilled job that has been hopelessly undervalued by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for too long. There is no national standard or qualification for PIAs so many staff are poorly trained – through no fault of their own. Companies are under market pressure to produce a cheaper product for ever more demanding supermarkets. This in turn puts pressure on slaughterhouse staff not to reject unfit birds. | Meat inspection is a highly skilled job that has been hopelessly undervalued by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for too long. There is no national standard or qualification for PIAs so many staff are poorly trained – through no fault of their own. Companies are under market pressure to produce a cheaper product for ever more demanding supermarkets. This in turn puts pressure on slaughterhouse staff not to reject unfit birds. |
| Added to this, there is a high staff turnover and high rates of sickness absence. Major plants are consistently understaffed and use agencies to fill the gaps – leading to a lack of trained staff working in these plants and additional problems of poor hygiene. Only when a qualified and independent meat hygiene inspector is present is the job done properly. Sadly this is getting much harder. Recently, under the instruction of the government, the FSA lobbied to overturn a decision by the European parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee to reject visual-only inspection of pigs, for example. The result is that since 1 June this year, our members are no longer allowed to physically inspect every pig slaughtered. So, it is chicken in the news today, but it could be pigs tomorrow. | Added to this, there is a high staff turnover and high rates of sickness absence. Major plants are consistently understaffed and use agencies to fill the gaps – leading to a lack of trained staff working in these plants and additional problems of poor hygiene. Only when a qualified and independent meat hygiene inspector is present is the job done properly. Sadly this is getting much harder. Recently, under the instruction of the government, the FSA lobbied to overturn a decision by the European parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee to reject visual-only inspection of pigs, for example. The result is that since 1 June this year, our members are no longer allowed to physically inspect every pig slaughtered. So, it is chicken in the news today, but it could be pigs tomorrow. |
| Protection of the human food chain must be the first and most important duty of the FSA. Meat inspectors, official veterinarians and the people who support them defend the consumer each and every day. These roles should not be privatised or weakened. The people who carry out these vital roles feel that both the FSA and the government have abandoned them and put the public at risk, simply to increase the profits in the meat industry. As their union, we cannot silently stand by and let this happen. This week we are balloting our members for industrial action. They don’t want to strike – they want to do their jobs protecting the public – but they are at their wit’s end.We hope that the FSA will begin to negotiate and recognise our members for the important job they do.Dave PrentisGeneral secretary, Unison | Protection of the human food chain must be the first and most important duty of the FSA. Meat inspectors, official veterinarians and the people who support them defend the consumer each and every day. These roles should not be privatised or weakened. The people who carry out these vital roles feel that both the FSA and the government have abandoned them and put the public at risk, simply to increase the profits in the meat industry. As their union, we cannot silently stand by and let this happen. This week we are balloting our members for industrial action. They don’t want to strike – they want to do their jobs protecting the public – but they are at their wit’s end.We hope that the FSA will begin to negotiate and recognise our members for the important job they do.Dave PrentisGeneral secretary, Unison |
| • There are no “strict industry hygiene standards” capable of protecting the public from campylobacter – this bug has plagued the chicken industry for half a century. For as long as governments encourage systems guaranteed to foster stress and gross overcrowding in poultry, the problems of widespread contamination will continue unabated. An average broiler chicken farm houses 50,000 birds per shed living on a build-up of faeces. As the birds, genetically selected for obesity, grow, so does the congestion. The fear and pain they suffer during catching, transport and the hanging-on process are notorious, and inevitable. The obvious solution? A consumer boycott of all chicken products. Meanwhile, the Food Standards Agency needs to get down to fulfilling its purpose, which is to protect the public, not the poultry industry.Clare DruceHolmfirth, West Yorkshire | • There are no “strict industry hygiene standards” capable of protecting the public from campylobacter – this bug has plagued the chicken industry for half a century. For as long as governments encourage systems guaranteed to foster stress and gross overcrowding in poultry, the problems of widespread contamination will continue unabated. An average broiler chicken farm houses 50,000 birds per shed living on a build-up of faeces. As the birds, genetically selected for obesity, grow, so does the congestion. The fear and pain they suffer during catching, transport and the hanging-on process are notorious, and inevitable. The obvious solution? A consumer boycott of all chicken products. Meanwhile, the Food Standards Agency needs to get down to fulfilling its purpose, which is to protect the public, not the poultry industry.Clare DruceHolmfirth, West Yorkshire |
| • Profitable business trumps the nation’s health. And the agency meant to police the producer votes against doing so, not surprising since, as you point out, its board was mainly appointed by Jeremy Hunt. This is bad enough, but just imagine when the business, if it is transnational, can sue our government for interfering with its profitability should our government and its agencies act to put our health before the business’s wealth. That is our future if the EU-US transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) currently being stitched up by the EU and the US (and supported not just by the Tories but also, it appears, by Labour) is agreed. | • Profitable business trumps the nation’s health. And the agency meant to police the producer votes against doing so, not surprising since, as you point out, its board was mainly appointed by Jeremy Hunt. This is bad enough, but just imagine when the business, if it is transnational, can sue our government for interfering with its profitability should our government and its agencies act to put our health before the business’s wealth. That is our future if the EU-US transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) currently being stitched up by the EU and the US (and supported not just by the Tories but also, it appears, by Labour) is agreed. |
| Given the frightening significance of this, I am baffled by the lack of media coverage. George Monbiot alerted us to it late last year (Comment, 5 November 2013) but since then, nothing. The plotting is highly secretive but not totally out of reach. War on Want publishes a useful booklet on the subject and there are, among other websites, www.bilaterals.org, which includes all the latest news, and www.stopttip.net.John AirsLiverpool | Given the frightening significance of this, I am baffled by the lack of media coverage. George Monbiot alerted us to it late last year (Comment, 5 November 2013) but since then, nothing. The plotting is highly secretive but not totally out of reach. War on Want publishes a useful booklet on the subject and there are, among other websites, www.bilaterals.org, which includes all the latest news, and www.stopttip.net.John AirsLiverpool |
| • Congratulations to the Guardian for exposing the gross hygiene breaches inside farms and slaughterhouses that can lead to campylobacter infections in people. It is most timely, as today Animal Aid is launching a new campaign initiative with the aim of making CCTV mandatory in all UK slaughterhouses, and independent monitoring of the footage. Clearly, CCTV won’t pick up every hygiene breach but it would record cases – such as you exposed – where carcasses land on the floor and are then put back on the line. Even better, it should deter such acts. It should also deter the kinds of gross abuse of animals that Animal Aid filmed – and the Guardian revealed – inside eight out of nine randomly chosen UK slaughterhouses filmed. | |
| Those interested in supporting the campaign for mandatory CCTV can find out more, and sign the No 10 petition, at www.slaughterhousecctv.org.uk.Kate FowlerHead of campaigns, Animal Aid | Those interested in supporting the campaign for mandatory CCTV can find out more, and sign the No 10 petition, at www.slaughterhousecctv.org.uk.Kate FowlerHead of campaigns, Animal Aid |
| • Your piece (Eating less meat is a better way to cut CO2 than giving up cars, expert says, 22 July) is about US and global research, and presumably refers to the “feedlot” system of producing beef. Most UK beef and lamb is grass-fed, on land where it is uneconomic to grow other food crops, but this would change if food prices rose. If we stopped eating beef and lamb now, many farms would be abandoned and the natural vegetation would rot down, producing greenhouse gases with no useful product. Supplements are fed at critical periods of infancy, late pregnancy, and sometimes final fattening. These supplements consist of byproducts from the human food chain, such as brewers’ grains or oilseed cake, or they are weather affected crops that have been rejected from their intended use. By recycling these products, beef and lamb producers are increasing the efficiency of the human food chain. | • Your piece (Eating less meat is a better way to cut CO2 than giving up cars, expert says, 22 July) is about US and global research, and presumably refers to the “feedlot” system of producing beef. Most UK beef and lamb is grass-fed, on land where it is uneconomic to grow other food crops, but this would change if food prices rose. If we stopped eating beef and lamb now, many farms would be abandoned and the natural vegetation would rot down, producing greenhouse gases with no useful product. Supplements are fed at critical periods of infancy, late pregnancy, and sometimes final fattening. These supplements consist of byproducts from the human food chain, such as brewers’ grains or oilseed cake, or they are weather affected crops that have been rejected from their intended use. By recycling these products, beef and lamb producers are increasing the efficiency of the human food chain. |
| Further evidence of the US focus of this research is given by the suggestion that we should reduce consumption of red meat to 100g a day. That was the weekly ration shortly before I was born, and seems quite generous now. This is put into its proper context by the statement that (in spite of the fact that 100% of the population eat), agriculture “causes 15% of all emissions”. Perhaps we ought to worry more about reducing emissions from industries that produce 85% of emissions. With British food you get lower emissions and higher welfare.Huw JonesSt Clears, Carmarthenshire | Further evidence of the US focus of this research is given by the suggestion that we should reduce consumption of red meat to 100g a day. That was the weekly ration shortly before I was born, and seems quite generous now. This is put into its proper context by the statement that (in spite of the fact that 100% of the population eat), agriculture “causes 15% of all emissions”. Perhaps we ought to worry more about reducing emissions from industries that produce 85% of emissions. With British food you get lower emissions and higher welfare.Huw JonesSt Clears, Carmarthenshire |
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