DEREGULATION PLUS THE FSA NOW NEED A SCRUTINY GROUP FOR THEIR REVIEW INTO MEAT PROCESSING PLANTS ETC

DEREGULATION. It was brought to my attention in March this year, that a House of Commons Parliamentary Committee was seeking written evidence into how deregulation worked. On the 13th April 2018, I submitted written evidence to the Regulatory Reform Committee Inquiry into deregulation. The nearly 3,000 word response is too long to post here, but mainly concentrates on truly independent hygiene inspections in slaughterhouses, cutting plants and cold stores by highly trained staff, as well as other food related issues. The Government are presently using rules for deregulation, that mean in order to introduce a new regulation, you have to remove up to three other regulations first. Regulation, I believe, should be used on the need to protect the consumer and the public, and not based purely on a numbers count. THE FSA NOW NEED A SCRUNITY GROUP FOR THEIR REVIEW INTO MEAT PROCESSING PLANTS Following the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Food Standards Scotland (FSS) announcing a review into meat processing plants on 1st February this year (after several meat hygiene scares within the last year), they have now said that a scrutiny group will oversee this review. This group has already convened. The link to this is below. https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/challenge-group-scrutinise-uk-wide-review-into-meat-processing-plants Following a report by MPs from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, in March this year that was critical of the FSA (following an investigation into a meat processing plant in West Bromwich last year), is the FSA running scared of more bad press and therefore trying to deflect any blame, should the outcome of the review in September not be well received? On the other hand, is the FSA taking the best course of action to ensure the review protects the public and consumer, and doing so solely for us and not because of their previous failings, which were highlighted by this Parliamentary committee report? YET MORE PRODUCT RECALLS On the 25th April the FSA website showed a recall of a salad products with Bacon (link below) due to the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes. Whilst not saying that this has anything to do with Keeping Meat Hygiene inspection Independent, this is very worrying. Listeria monocytogenes is particularly dangerous to the elderly, pregnant women and their unborn babies, newborn babies & people with weakened immune systems. It also has the highest mortality rate per number of cases, of all the foodborne illnesses. https://www.food.gov.uk/news-25thalerts/alert/fsa-prin-23-2018