May 1, 2009

A series of changes to the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) in UK has been agreed by the Food Safety Authority Board, pending government ministers' agreement.

Once the government approves, hygiene charges will increase by 4 percent or GBP800,000 across the UK, unless a business has already had a larger increase due to the requirement for charges to meet European Commission minimum levels.

The Board also agreed on new calculating changes based on the time and cost of the inspection process at meat businesses, and to not go ahead at this stage with a plan to introduce new charges for official controls on removal of specified risk material.

FSA chief executive Tim Smith said they will propose to reduce the support the industry receives from the taxpayer while continuing to protect the interests of the most vulnerable meat businesses.

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said in a statement it was pleased that the FSA had taken on board the majority of points made through its contribution to the recent consultation on meat hygiene charges and was also pleased that the FSA board had reduced its charging ambitions for the current year from over GBP3.5 million to around GBP0.8 million.

BMPA director Stuart Roberts said they are opposing to any increase in charges and will continue to argue that there should be no increase for a number of reasons. Due to the competitive position of the processing industry which is under severe pressure, Roberts said the decreasing availability and increasing prices of livestock, is the industry's biggest single expenditure during this extremely challenging economic environment.