ROTTEN TURKEYS AGAIN AT CHRISTMAS – IS THIS FOOD WE CAN TRUST?
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) state on the front page of their website “Food we can trust”. “Our job is to use our expertise and influence so that people can trust that the food they buy and eat is safe and what it says it is”.
For the second year running there have been stories in the media about rotten turkeys being sold and therefore ruining Christmas for the purchasers, their families and friends.
The supermarkets implicated were Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's & Tesco, as can be seen in the links to the articles below from the Daily Mirror and Metro respectively.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sainsburys-tesco-aldi-customers-complain-13776547
https://metro.co.uk/2018/12/26/christmas-ruined-families-discovered-supermarket-bought-turkey-gone-mouldy-8283887/
The only two logical reasons why the turkeys were rotten, mouldy or discoloured, is storage in terms of temperature etc or their use before dates were incorrect.
The FSA had a review published, of cutting plants and Cold stores in October 2018 and recommendation 19 stated:
“Work with industry, Westminster Government and the devolved administrations to introduce a more standardised approach to the wording of durability on product labels and require food businesses throughout the meat supply chain to adopt that approach. If legislation is required we will work with industry and Defra (Department of the Environment Food & Rural Affairs) to develop the legislation to mandate this requirement”.
Legislation is clearly now required in relation to the wording of product labels for durability. Both the FSA and DEFRA should bring this forward now and not wait +18 months to do so, which is the proposed timescale.
Last year a food scare in a cutting plant by ITV news and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed how kill by dates were being altered which therefore effects the use by date. They also found returned meat being put back onto the production line and re-dated prior to being sent out for sale again. This appears to be food fraud.
You may recall we wrote to the top 10 largest supermarkets in the UK last year who all claimed to put customer safety as their priority. Despite these assurances what has improved?
Selling food which is not fit for human consumption is against the law and dangerous to health, if consumed. It is the responsibility of the food business operator, by law, to ensure their food is safe.
Supermarkets sometimes blame the suppliers when things go wrong, but they also have a responsibility to the public, given that they sell the products and say they audit their suppliers, how do these problems keep arising?
Whilst giving a customer their money back or a voucher may be the correct thing do in the first instance, this should not absolve them or their suppliers from prosecution, to prevent reoccurrence of the same problems time and again.
In order to achieve compliance with food law you need a strong regulator.
Finally thank each and everyone one of you for your continued help and support. The petition now has over 185,000 votes which is truly overwhelming.
Happy New Year!