Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government in the light of the 2013 horsemeat scandal, what steps are being taken to tighten controls on imported meat and to increase random sampling of meat in the retail and hospitality sectors.

Robust import controls already exist for meat and meat products entering the European Union (EU) from non-EU countries. These consignments are considered to be of potential high risk to animal and public health therefore each consignment of meat must:

- come from a country approved to export meat or meat products to the EU;

- come from EU-approved premises;

- be accompanied by animal health and public health certification;and

- enter the EU through a Border Inspection Post (BIP) where veterinary checks are carried out (all consignments must also be pre-notified prior to arrival).

Whilst the United Kingdom imports little in the way of processed meat[1] from non-EU (third) countries the Food Standards Agency (FSA) did undertake a two month sampling programme starting on the 4 March 2013 on bovine meat and meat products presented for import from third countries at UK borders to test for traces of horse or pig meat DNA; no horse or pig meat positives were found. The FSA concluded that the existing import controls allowed little room for fraud and did not require further tightening.

Enforcement responsibility for food retail and hospitality sectors lies with local authorities. The FSA funds local authorities to take additional food samples against priorities set by FSA. The meat related priorities in 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 are as set out in the following table.

The FSA’s priorities are also used by local authorities to target sampling that they fund themselves.

[1] The 2013 horsemeat scandal centred on the intra EU trade in processed meat.