THE CO-OPERATIVE LETTER PLUS SAINSBURY’S, TESCO AND MARKS & SPENCER SUPERMARKET UPDATE.

THE CO-OPERATIVE Today, we sent the fourth letter in our campaign to the Co-operative’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. S Murrells. We look forward to the company’s response, particularly as they are a British consumer based co-operative. We will let you know what they have to say. Details of the letter are at the end of this update. SAINSBURY’S We received a reply to our letter to Sainsbury’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. M Coupe on 04-01-2018. In fairness to them, we asked if they wished to publish their response on the Change. Org website. We have had no response, despite their automated reply stating that we would receive one within 72 hours. As such, we have decided to publish their reply, along with our communication with them. Below is Sainsbury’s response. We have withdrawn the name of the Executive Officer who replied, as we believe the Chief Operating Officer, Mr. M Coupe, is ultimately responsible. “Dear Mr Nash, Thanks for your recent letter to Mike Coupe regarding meat hygiene inspections. He’s asked me to respond on his behalf and I welcome the chance to address your concerns.
 
 We’re very familiar with the current process for hygiene inspection throughout the meat and poultry sector and we remain supportive of independent inspection. As you’ve mentioned, independent inspection is only one part of a much broader assurance system for this sector and is supplemented by the industry’s own processes, third party certification e.g. BRC / GFSI and indeed customer inspection / audits including those of Sainsbury’s and other retailers. 
 There are many different approaches to food safety and hygiene assurance in the meat and poultry sectors throughout the world and indeed many advances in technology that weren’t available when current inspection processes were introduced. Therefore, whilst we wouldn’t support a reduction of meat hygiene controls, we do believe it’s important to ensure they’re constantly reviewed so that they remain fit for purpose and provide enhanced assurance.
 
 I hope I’ve helped reassure you of our commitment to food hygiene and safety. We appreciate you taking time to contact us and giving us the chance to respond.
 
 Kind regards
 
 Executive Office
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd” Our reply of the 04-01-2018 to the above: “Thank you very much for your reply on behalf of Mike Coupe. In fairness to your response, we would wish to know if Sainsbury’s would wish to post this as a decision maker response like they have done here? (There was a hyperlink here, in which Sainsbury's had responded to a previous petition). From our point of view, your reply as stated below, will we believe, do very little to inform or reassure your consumers. The West Bromwich meat plant, mentioned in our letter to Mr Coupe of 21-12-2017, and which reports suggest was a supplier of Sainsbury’s, was found to be re-labelling/extending the sell by dates as well as other poor hygiene practices. Recently Sainsbury’s has unfortunately had a product recall on 22nd December 2017 on your ‘Taste the Difference Aberdeen Angus Quarter Pounder Burgers’. This appears to be due to a scare, regarding the product containing E.coli O157. Twelve people appear to have been affected and reports suggest this problem was brought to your attention by Public Health England. Given the above, we do not believe that the processes you have mentioned worked in these cases. Also, we would wish to know how technology has reduced the severity for suffers and the cost of foodborne illness (Cost estimated by the Food Standards Agency Chief Scientist report of 1 April 2011 to
 31 March 2012, as £1.9 Billion). We hope technology does not mean, for example, Chlorine washed Chicken to mask poor hygiene practices etc. Regards, Steve Nash” TESCO We have still not received a response to our letter to Mr D. Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, dated 28th December 2017. MARKS & SPENCER LETTER We are still awaiting a response to our letter dated 4th January 2018 to Chief Executive, Mr. S Rowe. If we do not receive a reply from Tesco or Marks & Spencer four weeks from the date of the original letter, we will be resending the letters until we receive a response. If you use Twitter or Facebook, we would very much appreciate you keep sharing this post. Alternatively, if you wish to bring this letter to the attention of your local store manager, this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your continued comments & support. Co-operative Letter: Mr S Murrells Chief Executive Officer The Co-operative Group Food Limited PO Box 53 Manchester M11 2WE Don’t Risk lives Keep meat Hygiene inspections Independent. https://www.change.org/p/don-t-risk-lives-keep-meat-inspections-independent Dear Sir, We are sure that your company is aware of the meat hygiene scandals that have recently been in the media, namely the chicken plant in West Bromwich, (covered by the Guardian and ITV News) that appears to supply your company and the “Blowing the whistle on the Meat Industry” by the Bureau of Investigative Jounalism & ITV. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) are planning to reduce the frequency of meat hygiene inspections, reduce the number of directly employed Meat Hygiene Inspectors (MHIs) in slaughterhouses and to continue the practice of them not being present in cutting plants, through a freeze on recruiting new MHIs. This will mean more official controls will be in the private sector, which does not appear to be what your customers support, as a UNISON meat inspection survey by COMRES indicated in December 2016. When the public were asked in this survey whether “Slaughterhouses should be required to have their food safety and quality standards independently assessed by external Government inspectors”, 87% agreed. Also in this survey, in relation to fewer inspections, 74% of adults across all political persuasions in England and Wales, said they would be concerned about changes that would see fewer independent inspections by FSA vets and inspectors, and more inspections by private contractors & slaughterhouse themselves. We believe the survey suggests that the public do not trust the industry that produces the meat to be independent, but they do trust Government employed MHIs. Given the above, do the Co-operative believe the FSA are taking the best course of action to protect the public from foodborne illness, is by reducing independent meat hygiene inspection services, or do the Co-operative believe the FSA’s course of action is wrong? We would be happy to have your company’s view on this. We also wish wish to know if the Co-operative believe that they have a moral obligation to ensure their suppliers meet all hygiene regulations, and if so how you take practical steps to achieve this? The public, as well as our small national charity, have some serious concerns which are demonstated by the petition above. This petition has reached over 102,000 votes of support to date. We look forward to your response. Yours faithfully, Steve Nash