Horsemeat Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Andrew Stephenson
Main Page: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)Department Debates - View all Andrew Stephenson's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con)
Many British farmers are concerned by those who are touring the TV studios at the moment saying that they would not eat any beef products in this country. What does the Minister think retailers, who have ultimate responsibility for ensuring food safety, should be doing to reassure their consumers?
Mr Heath
In the first instance, what they should be doing is exactly what they are doing at our request: testing every processed beef product that they have on their shelves and sharing with us the results so that we can provide advice independently, through the FSA, on the level of substitution that has occurred. However, they have to go further than that and examine their supply chains. They have to be able to reassure their customers of the value of the systems that they have in place, and I hope that having taken the initial action, they will soon be in a position to do exactly that and to tell every person who walks through the doors of their stores where a product comes from and that it has been tested and is what it says it is.