Meeting requested with the new chair of the Food Standards Agency (FSA).  

Following the last petition update we have requested a meeting with the new chair of the FSA Professor Susan Jebb who took up her position on                                                                       1st July this year.   
 
In this open letter to her I stated the following:                                                                             
 
“Congratulations on your appointment as Chair of the Food Standards Agency.
 
I would like to arrange a meeting with yourself in your office to discuss, from a consumer view and sufferers of foodborne illnesses view, how some of the Agency’s intended policies could adversely affect Public Health and consumer confidence in the Agency.  This is something that I and others have grave concerns about.
 
As some of your officials may be aware, I have been campaigning for over 20 years mainly to prevent bacterium such as E.coli O157 from entering the food chain.
 
Currently there is a petition on Change.org https://www.change.org/p/don-t-risk-lives-keep-meat-inspections-independent

So far this has at least 219,870 votes. Despite presenting this to your Chief Executive previously, the public’s comments are very much that food safety and truly independent inspections and enforcement (rules) are important to them.
 
In other recent reports from DEMOS and Unchecked, Links below. (Pages 10-12 in the Unchecked report are in relation to food)

These reports indicate what the public want, which does not necessarily appear to align with your intended policies.
 https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Food-in-a-Pandemic.pdf
 
https://www.unchecked.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-UKs-Enforcement-Gap-2020.pdf

Also, in January 2020, UNISON conducted a public polling exercise, to get a feel for the public’s views on food safety. The respected Savanta ComRes polling company asked over 2,000 people what they thought of meat production in the UK.

These are a flavour of the results:
 
85% voted It was their view it should be compulsory for meat safety and quality in slaughterhouses to be assessed by independent government inspectors.
 
When asked if the UK leaves the EU, to what extent, if at all, would you be concerned if the UK government relaxed laws on meat quality standards, in order to secure trade deals with the USA and the rest of the world, 81% voted they would be concerned.
 
The concerns I would wish to discuss are the recent consultations etc. on the following but not limited to:
 
Consultation response to the Consultation on Early Proposals for a Future Delivery Model for FSA-Delivered Official Controls in the Meat Sector and the Review of the Food Law Code of Practice, Food Law Practice Guidance, and implementation of the Competency Framework. I did respond to both the above stated consultations.

In March 2020 the FSA published “The Burden of Foodborne disease in the UK 2018”. Link below. This report states on page numbered xi.
“Microbiological foodborne disease (FBD) places both a public health and financial burden on society. In 2018 there were estimated to be 2.4 million FBD-related cases in the UK”.

It goes on to say on the same page

“Based on 2018 case estimates, FBD costs society approximately £9.1bn a year”.
https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/the-burden-of-foodborne-disease-in-the-uk_0.pdf

I look forward to your response and hope that you are willing to meet with me and others who appear to have a different opinion to the Agency so that we can openly discuss these concerns and differences”
 
I will of course let you know in the next update of this petition
whether or not a meeting is offered by Professor Susan Jebb.                                                                                  
 
Thank you for your continued help and support.
 
Stay safe.