January 23, 2007

British agency seeks to review meat inspection

The British Food Standards Agency has launched a review of meat inspection controls in the light of new EU regulations.

The agency is looking into a range of options in light of EU food hygiene regulations that came into force in Jan 2006.

The FSA is the sole authority responsible for official controls in meat plants in the UK. It intends to work with the industry to ensure the most effective and efficient methods of inspection are employed.

According to the agency, food safety and consumer confidence were important and any revised method of delivering controls must maintain current standards.

The FSA also intends to consider ways of recovering the cost of inspection and reducing the government subsidy to the meat industry which at present stands at about GBP 40 million (US$79 million).