British food safety standards have been making headlines yet again with several UK supermarket chains suspending contracts with 2 Sisters Food Group as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) launches an investigation into the alleged alterations of use-by dates on chickens. This latest scandal follows growing European concern about the state of food processing practices emanating from incidents including the Dutch egg insecticide contamination fiasco and recent FSA testing that showed how common food poisoning bug campylobacter was present within 50% of supermarket chicken products.

This latest incident seems to challenge the FSA’s July report, ‘Regulating Our Future’, which recommended reducing the frequency of inspections for major supermarkets and focusing on smaller firms as it was believed that the large retailers had established high safety standards.

After all this, why is it that food standards appear to be at an all-time low? Could it be due to the government austerity measures imposed since 2008 which have resulted in a 70% decline in Environmental Health Officer business visits since 2010? Might retailers have learned nothing from the horse meat scandal of 2014? Or could it be that the pressure on retailers to source ever cheaper products is at fault? I suspect the problem lies in all three. Legislation alone, even backed up by harsh penalties or prosecution, has never stopped criminal opportunity to increase profit margins. Inspections do work but the UK will never go back to the excessive civil servant levels of the pre-financial collapse era. Human nature means customers will always seek value, even if ‘you get what you pay for’.

The only viable solution is for food retailers to embrace their responsibility to keep customers safe by using robust supply chain scrutiny. This could be achieved by developing contracts that enable mandatory regular unplanned inspections, random sample testing, staff interviews at all levels, examination of CCTV footage in line with the new government slaughterhouse proposals and the proper examination of producer’s certificates and documents. This way, retailers might start to regain that vital, but ebbing customer confidence.

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