UK: mass food fraud under investigation

Following allegations reported by trade publication Farmer’s Weekly (FW), the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is investigating the false labelling of foreign meat as British by a supplier of pork products used in dining halls of schools, hospitals, care homes and prisons, and that also ended up in items such as ready meals, quiches and sandwiches sold by UK supermarkets.    

According to FW, the deceitful food manufacturer, sold mislabelled and sometimes rotten and/or not properly heat-treated pork meat up until at least the end of 2020. Moreover, some former employees declared to FW that the paperwork for sampling was often falsified.    

Almost all of the former employees FW has spoken said that country-of-origin fraud was embedded in the company’s operating model. The business would buy a relatively small amount of British meat from a retailer-approved supplier, then use the traceability information related to this delivery for all the products it made in that week, hiding that the majority of raw materials used were coming from elsewhere in the world.  

Some former employees admitted that auditors who visited the site were deceived. The business was able to respond quickly also to surprise audits: in 15 minutes everybody in the facility would be notify and able to hide or get rid of the incriminating evidence.  

Industry leaders approached for comment have said FW’s investigation should act as a “wake-up call” for the sector and questioned the response of the FSA and the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU).  

Darren Davies, head of the NFCU, declared “This is a complex and live investigation and we are looking into all new lines of enquiry with our partner organisations, including any potential food hygiene breaches at the premises. If any evidence of a food safety risk is found, then necessary action will be taken”. “The FSA advised retailers last year to check their cooked meat supply chain and to apply extra due diligence in their checks. We don’t give out these alerts without a reason” he added. “As a national regulator, we are the last line of defence. At a time when cost pressures and other challenges mean the risks of food fraud might be increasing, it is vital that everyone involved in the food system remains extra vigilant to ensure that food is safe and what it says it is” he concluded.  

 

Source:  

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/exclusive-mass-food-fraud-and-safety-scandal-engulfs-sector