It’s good to see that Norman Bagley, policy director of the Association of Meat Suppliers (AIMS), is getting plenty of support from his members in backing his stance against the Food Standards Agency (FSA) over its publishing of a “cause for concern” list of abattoirs; this being done despite the FSA Agency being overruled by the FSA Board itself! This is pretty humiliating for the FSA Board, and it does raise the question; why bother with such meetings when the FSA executive totally ignore FSA Board rulings? How demeaning it is for those Board Members, but one shouldn’t be too surprised by the dismissive tactics of FSA Executive leader Lord Rooker and his cronies, even if it is his own side he’s undermining. He strikes me as the type of man who wouldn’t give a fig anyway.
So good luck to Norman, but reading the article in the Meat Trades Journal (MTJ) that featured this topic also highlighted a major stumbling block to trade unity.
And this relates to the comments of Stephen Rossides, director with the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA). He said: “It’s not completely clear what a “cause for concern” is for. If a food business operator (FBO) is not producing safe food, then it should be shut down. If it producing meat that is health marked, what does being on a public “cause for concern” list communicate, and to whom?”
Notwithstanding the fact that no FBO can guarantee “safe” food because that is not possible, this is a bit of a wishy washy statement from Mr Rossides, although the reference to the health mark is important; once the health mark is applied, it’s job done. So a “cause for concern” or any other fatuous exercise that officialdom can dream up is a complete waste of time,and a prime example of a Government department stepping outside its legal remit.
But it’s a typical glass half full comment from the BMPA, who are obviously concerned about the impact of full cost recovery on their members who in the main run the larger plants, but who actually would not shed a tear if a swathe of small to abattoirs were removed from competition.
Perhaps I’m being too cynical. The BMPA, are always anxious, it would appear, not to be too critical of Government; after all, they welcomed, pushed for and lauded the birth of the wretched Meat Hygiene Service, predecessor to the FSA, and it certainly does not want to be confrontational.
They have always run with the hare and hunted with the hounds, or so it would seem, as illustrated by Mr Rossides’ following on statement: “The FSA needs to find better ways to reward high or improving standards and penalise poor standards. The present inflexible meat inspection system just doesn’t do this.””. This is a statement that is dangerous to the meat trade because it is wrong. Standards, however they may be classified, having nothing to do whatsoever with the regulators. There is, in fact, only one standard that counts, and that is the law. FBO’s have to comply with the law, the regulators have to enforce it. End of story. Raising this or improving that are not legal requirements. By sucking up to officialdom in this way, Mr Rossides comes over pretty much as a bureaucrat himself. It certainly seems like he wants a foot in both camps; not a strategy to promote unity, I would suggest.
In fact the Scottish wholesalers are already pushing for a devolved meat inspection to come under the auspice of FSA Scotland, to break away from the FSA: and who can blame them? They have been vociferous in their condemnation of the way FSA has gone about the issue of full cost recovery, are probably more outspoken than any other trade association, and obviously feel that this is the right time to branch out.
But we must keep our minds clear. What is important is that “cause for concern” doesn’t become a red herring which distracts and uses up resources for the much more important conflict abattoir operators face over full cost recovery of meat inspection charges.
When I think about “cause for concern,” my response is boo/hiss. When my thoughts turn to full cost recovery, I wonder if I am going to have a business left at the end of it.
To succeed you have to try.
Toby Baker