The Farmers Mart Feb/Mar 2014 - Issue 32 | Page 46

butchery

40,000 people support mandatory
CCTV in slaughterhouses
A petition signed by 43,737 members
of the UK public, demanding
mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses
licensed to take horses, has been
handed to the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Defra).
Launched by the World Horse Welfare
charity, the campaign was initiated to
ensure that the public and horse owners
are confident that equine slaughter is
carried out humanly.

World Horse Welfare chief executive
Roly Owers said: “World Horse Welfare
believes that compulsory CCTV is a vital
aid to help protect horses and, while
we believe there is a role for humane
slaughter in Britain, inhumane slaughter
has no place and is indeed illegal.

‘CCTV is vital aid’
“We hope to make a strong impact on
Defra with the number of signatures we
have collected from our compassionate
supporters. Defra cannot ignore the
seriousness of this call for action or fail
to recognise the importance of regaining
public confidence in humane slaughter –
or food safety.”
However, a Defra spokesperson
said: “CCTV is not the most effective
monitoring tool. There are more effective
ways to ensure animal welfare standards
are upheld. We’ll be keeping the need

for compulsory CCTV in slaughterhouses
under review.”
She added that other new measures
were taking place to ensure high welfare
standards at slaughter as per EU
Regulation 1099/2009, which came into
force on 1 January this year.
“These include the requirement for a
competency licence for people involved in
either killing animals or related operations,
such as handling animals in the lairage
(area where animals are kept before
slaughter),” the Defra spokesperson
explained.
The campaign has been backed by
public figures such as BBC Formula One
presenter Lee McKenzie, British Olympic
equestrian sportswoman Mary King and
three-day eventing elite sportswoman
Pippa Funnell and husband William.
“We hope the public will continue to
show their support for change in 2014,”
Roly added.

FOOD EXPERT URGES CREATION OF
DEDICATED FOOD CRIME UNIT
The professor tasked with
making recommendations
to the government
following the 2012
horsemeat scandal has
recommended setting up
a dedicated police unit to
investigate and deal with
similar food- related issues
in the future.
In his interim report,
Professor Chris Elliott, Director
of the Institute for Global Food
Security at Queen’s University
Belfast, identified weaknesses
in the UK’s supply chain
networks and made a number
of recommendations to the
government.
Professor Elliott said criminal
elements in the supply chain
were responsible for the
crisis and that criminals,

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Feb/Mar 2014 FarmersMart

attracted to the food industry
by “the potential for huge
profits and low risks”, are
currently operating in unknown
numbers, their operations left
relatively unchecked.
He urged government and
industry to work together and
form ‘intelligence hubs’ to
gather and share information
and called for a ‘zero
tolerance’ policy for food fraud,
including the formation of a
dedicated Food Crime Unit,
based on police units working
in a number of Northern
European countries.
He suggested the new crime
unit be administered by the
FSA.
But Defra Secretary Owen
Paterson said the UK food
industry already has robust

procedures to ensure they
deliver high quality food
to consumers and food
businesses have a legal duty
to uphold the integrity of food
they sell.
He said “Significant action”
is already being taken to
prevent and identify food
crime, including unannounced
inspections of meat cutting
plants, which have increased
in frequency since the scandal
and food testing..
A Food Standards Agency
spokesperson said “Professor
Elliott is right to highlight
that there is a role for central
government, local authorities
and the food industry to play
in this area. We know from the
horse meat incident that food
supply chains are complex and

international. We support the
European Commission in its
work to establish a European
Union food fraud unit, to
which the FSA has seconded
staff, so we are better able to
protect consumers from fraud
along the whole food chain
across the whole of Europe.”
The full report will be
published in Spring.

To read more, visit www.farmers-mart.co.uk