General Secretaries Report

Subscriptions

  I am pleased to report that following a meeting with the Chief Executive of the MHS at seminar Mr. Johnston McNiell has agreed that the MHS will continue to purchase a corporate subscription for its employee’s from the association. This advance notice will remove the uncertainty which officers and members have suffered from over the past three years.

  37^TH Annual Seminar

Podger Confirms a Privatised Meat Inspection Service

  Mr. Geoffrey Podger, Chief Executive of the new Food Standards Agency speaking at the 37^th Annual Seminar confirmed that government’s intention and policy was to take meat inspection out of official controls, and place it in the hands of the meat industry.  Government’s view being that the industry should bear the responsibility for all their products.

  The target dates for these changes are a four-year introductory period from this year until 2004. Following which there will be a two-year implementation period – 2004 to 2006.  By 2006 the system should be in place.

  Mr Podger envisages that the Food Standards Agency will still have a role for the Meat Hygiene Service, albeit that role will become an audit role, auditing the HACCP plans administered by the plants.  The intimation from the speakers at the seminar was the size of this force would be approximately 200.  Similar in size to New Zealand who have a total of 150 veterinary officers and 50 meat inspectors.

  The Chief Executive informed the meeting that he sees the opportunity for change not in a negative light for meat inspectors but in a positive light, as there should be a greatly enhanced role for the meat inspector within industry and a demand for their skills by plant owners. As well as an opportunity to remain within the Meat Hygiene Service carrying out the audit role. 

  This is the first time that government plans for the service have had a public airing and whilst the information will serve to suppress rumours, it confirms the worse fears about the future of meat inspection within the United Kingdom.

  Johnson McNeill Announces Task Group to Examine HACCP

  Johnson McNeill, the Chief Executive, of the Meat Hygiene Service announced that he would form an industry-wide group including UNISON and the Association of Meat Inspectors to examine the need for training across the meat industry and the regulatory arm, in order to start to prepare the ground for the changeover in four years time. 

  Mr McNeill said at the Seminar that he expects there are a number of meat hygiene inspectors who transferred into the service in 1995 from local authorities with a several years’ service, and that these inspectors may very well wish to take a redundancy package. Whereas younger staff with less service may want to go into the pool either for the audit arm of the Food Standards Agency or to work in industry.

  With the figure of 200 staff being proposed, this would be a tenfold reduction in the size of the meat hygiene service. Although Mr McNeill did inform the meeting that there was a potential for enhanced roles for staff staying with the Food Standards Agency, such as milk inspections. But he was anxious to make it clear that he did not see inspectors working for the Food Standards Agency taking on traditional local authority roles.

  UNISON Opposes Changes

  Ben Priestley, National co-ordinator for UNISON, addressing the debate on the privatisation of meat inspection said that UNISON whilst supporting the modernisation of meat inspection could not support privatisation.  UNISON’s stand is that there are undoubtedly areas where meat inspection can be improved and modernised.

However, the way that HACCP systems are being handled not just in the UK but also across the world, means that HACCP systems are being used as a replacement and not an enhancement for traditional meat inspection roles.  UNISON’s stand on this is that it believes that this is simply a method put forward by government and industry to reduce the costs of meat inspection.

  The question was posed to speakers within the debate “Could we really trust industry, with the past record of some members of that industry, to carry out meat inspection properly and in accordance with the principles of protecting the public health?”  The answer based upon past experiences was a resounding “No”.

  Pooley Gives Insight into His Report

  Mr Robin Pooley OBE gave an entertaining and informative talk on the production of his report which has as its main thrust the change from traditional meat inspection into HACCP based systems.

  The comprehensive report, which was produced over a very short period of time during 1999, made a number of recommendations, which have been accepted by government and made into present government policy.  Members attending the Seminar expressed concern that the government had made such a drastic change in policy in a vital area of public protection without any public debate on the subject. 

  Perhaps the most fascinating insight by Mr Pooley was the revelation that on being asked to carry out his investigation by the Minister, Mr Pooley asked the Minister what he though the expected outcome should be, which was, unsurprisingly, considering the result, a HACCP based system for meat inspection. 

  Association of Meat Inspectors Response

  As General Secretary of the Association of Meat Inspectors, we informed the meeting that the Association’s position was at this time, (due to no detailed plans being available as to how the new system would be put in place or operated,) was the same as has been for a number of years, meat inspection should be carried out by an independent body and not by industry.  It was the Association’s view that every carcass should be inspected every day, in every plant and this would remain the Association’s view until the association was convinced that any proposed system would improve meat inspection and fully protect the public health. 

  Although the proposed system is probably going to be similar to that in the USA or Australia, comments received from both of these countries are that a system purely based on HACCP does not function within meat inspection.  There is no scientifically based study to date, which demonstrates that HACCP does work in abattoirs. In fact leading authorities on HACCP say that it would be difficult to put a purely HACCP based system into abattoirs which would function effectively and properly.

  Although the system on a pilot basis has been running in America since 1999 there are already questions about industry’s handling of the situation.  The American system relies on assessing the microbial contamination of carcasses with sampling for Salmonella carried out at federal levels.  However, the plants themselves carry out sampling for E-coli.  A speaker at this weeks Environmental Health Congress from America reported that some of the samples sent back from plants to judge whether or not E-coli was present on the carcass had been microwaved prior to being despatched! A fact that hardly fills us full of confidence in industry’s ability to carry out the task properly. 

  There is also the question of what you do with unwholesome meat.  In America where rejected carcasses are not designated to be a food safety hazard, any disease and condition not directly related to food or consumer safety becomes a plant decision as to how that material is handled and used.  Examples of these conditions would be - abscesses, mastitis, neoplasia, metabolic or degenerative conditions including ascites emaciation, melanosis and localised lesions such as bruises, fractures. All these conditions are now considered to be simply unwholesome and as such the plant can make the decision as to how this material is used. 

  In America this led to a huge scandal where material from the poultry industry which had abscesses, bruises, fractures, breast blisters etc were used to produce chicken nuggets which were fed back to school children!  “Is this really the way we wish public health to go in the future?”

  There will undoubtedly be changes in how meat inspection is carried out in the future, but these changes should be based upon sound scientific analysis of the subject area, and not driven by government’s desire to reduce costs. The Association intends to play as full a role as possible in getting a system of Meat Inspection, which will protect the public health, and be suitable for the meat industry in the UK.

In doing this practical day to day knowledge of meat inspection held by our experienced MHI’s is invaluable and a resource we will use in negotiations. Your divisional secretaries are kept up to date with all the various consultations going on and will report this information to you at the divisional meetings, make sure you attend, it is your future and you can influence the way it will go.