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The UK could be on the brink of a “devastating” food safety scandal if local authority testing rates continue to fall, according to a leading food fraud expert. In a comment for New Food, Professor Chris Elliott, who led the government’s inquiry into the horsemeat scandal, noted the “immense work and resources” that large companies have put into ensuring food integrity, but raised concerns that small processors, retailers and food catering outlets have no such systems in place.“I can envisage local authorities’ ability to police multiple food producers and outlets further reducing to the point at which a major tilting point in food safety will occur, and possibly with devastating effects,” he wrote. “ Those individuals that rely heavily on the small stores and purchase larger amounts of fast food than the norm [and who also tend to be the worst off in our society] are clearly at much higher risk of being cheated.”And he isn’t the only expert to express concerns about the UK’s food supply system. Last month, Stefano Mariani, professor of conservation genetics at the University of Salford, told the BBC that rogue restaurants think they can get away with fish fraud – for example, passing off catfish as cod – because there is so little testing of seafood."In general there's very little testing for authenticity and traceability – at county level they may decide other tests, for instance testing for potentially harmful bacteria, is more important," he said. |
