GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT
September 2001
PRIVATISATION
Just how far things can change in a year when constant pressure has
been applied is becoming apparent.
The campaign by UNISON and your Association has made tremendous headway
over the last 12 months. Those of
you who were at Seminar last year will recall Johnston McNeill and Geoffrey
Podger informing everyone that you would be going to work for industry. This seems to have been forgotten by
most of the Senior FSA officials who are saying to us – “but we never meant
Privatisation but did mean modernisation and nobody is talking about you going
working for industry any longer” – a tremendous sideways change of direction, if
it is true.
These same
officials are asking why we don’t trust what is being told to us. We have to recall that when the MHS was
set up, a very large number of promises were made to meat inspectors, most of
which were instantaneously forgotten.
Also, that MAFF was putting
forward fast track meat inspection systems over 10 years ago , well
pre-HACCP. And perhaps the biggest
betrayal of all by the MHS / MAFF was the introduction, or should we say the
‘railroading’ of the PIA system in poultry meat. And it is in the PIA system that the
Association believes the largest threat still remains to meat inspectors and
meat inspectors’ roles within the food industry.
You will
have read in the last edition the item by Peter Hewson on the Modernisation of
Meat Inspection, and indeed some of the information within there gives us great
heart because it became apparent that we were winning the battle to change
peoples minds. However, with the
release of a document by the European Union, it is clear that the use of plant
staff is still on the Agenda as far as Europe is concerned and we should also
remember that it was the UK delegation who wanted a reduction in official
controls coupled with the introduction of HACCP, this vote was defeated by 15 to
1.
The EU
document on Meat Inspection includes a section dealing with plant staff
training. Plant staff, in this
document, are required to have comparable training as meat
inspectors. The Association firmly
believes that this is not good enough.
Anyone undertaking meat inspection should have a standard
qualification. The Association will
campaign for this both in Europe and in the United Kingdom.
In June
the FSA informed your National Council the only animals undergoing the fast
track inspection scheme would be fattening pigs, these being described as
‘industrial pigs’ or pigs which had never been outdoors. Council were informed by the FSA
official “that this would mean the possibility of the odd dedicated plants going
over to fast track inspection if they didn’t kill pigs that had ever been
outdoors”. But within these plants,
plant staff would assist the official veterinarian in carrying out their
duties. The official went further
and suggested that it “was very small beer for the UK and that they didn’t know
how many plants to extend the PIA system, but it would be very, very few”.
However,
the Association has learnt that within a week of making this declaration, the
same official was working on a project with the Royal College of Veterinary
Surgeons to examine the possibility of linking outdoor pigs and indoor pigs
together. If they are successful at
this, this would mean instead of a small number of plants being able to transfer
to a PIA system, the number would be considerably larger.
Then they
ask why we don’t trust them!
AMI Policy
Your General Council has
asked me to make clear AMI policy on the issues upon which we continue to fight
the campaign against privatisation.
I shall set these out below as I did on Friday evening of Seminar.
1.
The Association of Meat Inspectors will not accept privatisation either
direct or through a back door PIA system.
2.
The Association will continue to fight by every means possible to get
involvement within the process of modernising meat inspection.
3.
The Association will lobby for standardised manning levels for all
plants. The standardised manning
levels to be scientifically assessed.
4.
We will fight for a single baseline qualification for all those who carry
out meat inspection with a certification scheme to prove their competence.
5.
We will push the FSA to demonstrate that the openness and honesty they
profess to have, will actually be put into practice in the case of meat
inspectors in the United Kingdom.
Seminar
For those of you who didn’t
attend Seminar, in early September, I have to say that you missed a really good
informative weekend once again. The
Friday evening was an open forum which was attended by all parties, Meat Hygiene
Service, Unison, Abattoir owners, Veterinary Public Health Association and
ourselves, and a lively debate followed the opening addresses by each of the
speakers, which when on for almost 2 hours before retiring to the bar!.
On the
Saturday morning, John Chadwick put ‘A Butcher’s Point of View on HACCP’, very
forcefully and with great humour. A
copy of his edited speech is in this issue. Jason Aldis followed and gave a
Veterinary point of view of HACCP and the modernisation of meat inspection in
Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK. This presentation will be reproduced in
the next Hygienist and is very interesting reading. Jason was followed by Christopher Gill,
Vice President of the Association, who gave a political meat man’s point of
view. Christopher having been an MP
for 14 years, gave us a great insight into the working of the parliamentary
system and also put his own point of view as he is a fourth generation meat
trader as well as being Chairman of a meat company in the Midlands.
Saturday
afternoon Tim Udall who is a Principal OVS with the Meat Hygiene Service,
presented his paper on Veterinary Public Health in Europe. This paper was produced for the Royal
College of Veterinary Surgeons, and I believe is one of the best pieces of work
that I have seen on Veterinary Public Health in Europe. Copy is available from the Royal College
of Veterinary Surgeons. Charles Mason talked to the Seminar on the stunning of
animals and he was followed by Chris Lawson and Peter Hewson giving an update on
the present state of play within the European Union and the United Kingdom.
On
Saturday evening the after dinner speaker was Robin Pooley OBE, who expressed
surprise at being invited back to Seminar because of the content of his
report. Robin, for those of you who
don’t know, was brought up in the meat industry having worked in large abattoirs
on the slaughter-line (on the gut line) as well as out in New Zealand meat
industry. His tremendous sense of
humour and obvious love of the meat industry came through clearly in his after
dinner speech, which was both enjoyable and funny while still addressing the
serious issues facing the future of the meat industry.
On Sunday
morning the Veterinary Public Health Association session was chaired by Andrew
Storrar, who is a practising OVS from the Chester area. Ian Riley, a meat inspector, who is
currently carrying out a Masters Degree in his own time presented ‘A Meat
inspector’s View of HACCP’, with some very professional overheads. Dr Christine Dodds from Birmingham
University presented a paper on ‘HACCP – The Technical Implications’. It was interesting to note in both the
papers, from Ian Riley and Dr Christine Dodds, that the question of end product
testing arose and both were of the same opinion – within a HACCP system there is
no place for end product testing.
So perhaps, with all the reliance being placed upon calling what we’re
going to do HACCP, somebody appears to have it wrong.
On Sunday
morning Alison Small is an
OVS with the Meat Hygiene Service and presented a paper on the ‘Contamination
with pathogensin the lairage’
Alison presented this paper as part of a PhD which she is undertaking at
Langford, along with other University professionals. Some of the results were quite
startling, including that over 30% of cattle examined were showing E-coli 0157
along the brisket. We look forward
to hearing the full results of this research and Alison coming back to Seminar
to present her findings.
We also
had a presentation from David Smith.
David is a member of the Food Standards Agency Advisory Board for Wales
and presented a paper on the consumer’s point of view of HACCP and associated
systems. David is also a
Parliamentary lobbyist and is keen to see that the standardised training systems
promised by European legislation, are put into place.
A sentiment that as an
Association we clearly share.
Next Year
For those of you who missed
this year’s Seminar, you will have another opportunity next year. The Meat Hygiene Service has agreed to
sponsor 70 Meat Hygiene Inspectors to come to Seminar. We know there was confusion last year as
to how the places were being allocated and it is to avoid such confusion next
year that the Chief Executive Chris Lawson has agreed so early to support
Seminar in 2002.
Book you places early
because you are sure to get a good weekend.