FSS seeks meat fraud whistleblowers

This was the message from Food Standards Scotland chief executive, Geoff Ogle, as he spoke to journalists at the food safety agency's annual press briefing, held in Edinburgh this week.

Although he was careful to stress that no 'detailed' investigations were currently being carried out, he did confirm that the Scottish Food Crime Incidents Unit were busy, and that they had received information involving meat substitution – foreign meat being labelled at Scottish, and mis-sold to Scottish consumers – an issue that caused problems for FSS last November, when its intelligence manager Duncan Smith stated in a recorded interview that several seemingly 'bona fide' meat plants were guilty of the practice, incurring furious rebuttals from the meat trade.

Tentatively returning to this sore subject, Mr Ogle told The SF: "The remit of the Scottish Food Crime Incidents Unit is to protect Scottish food and drink. We certainly don't want people to think that the industry is rife with criminal activity, but people can certainly be reassured that any issues that are raised, are being dealt with.

"We are continually trying to raise awareness of what we do, and, as always, consumer safety is our first priority."

Mr Ogle continued: "Our Scottish food crime hotline was launched in a partnership with Crimestoppers last August, and we would always encourage the general public to use it if they have any information they think we need. This could be anything from information on food fraud – from meat substitution or mislabelling – to the illegal slaughter of animals.

"We need information, but we also need it from the industry itself. There is no doubt that we do need increased industry cooperation to increase the level of information that we have."

Mr Ogle also confirmed that, as well as meat substitution, the FSS have received information about the mislabelling of fish, but not to a level that has ever been deemed a threat to the general public.

With regard to any ongoing investigations into either meat or fish processors, he said that, although there was information being provided, and different levels of investigation were taking place, he felt it inappropriate to comment on them.

"There is a delicate balance that we have to try and strike" he explained, "perspective is important here."

Confirming that DNA testing would be a helpful tool when it comes to verifying meat authenticity, he stopped short of comfirming whether or not FSS would be advocating the use of it throughout all meat plants.

"The harder you make the system to fake something, the better the system is," he noted. "In that sense, DNA testing could potentially have an important role to play."

Treating the suggestion of making CCTV compulsory throughout slaughter houses with the same caution, and explaining that some 95% of all animals killed in Scottish slaughterhouses were already under CCTV surveillance, Mr Ogle said that it would be 'good practice' to have CCTV throughout all slaughterhouses and their lairage areas, but that is was not something that was being looked at to become compulsory.