Cross Species Contamination – 4 February 2013

A video link connected Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh to FSA in London.
Minister David Heath, was present in London and he introduced the subject saying this is a significant and serious problem. It affects everybody. Headlines are corrosive and will keep coming until sorted. Need a process in which everyone can have confidence. We need to come out of this meeting with a protocol to take responsibilities fully and as a priority. Need to pull findings so that answers can be given to the questions asked. Want to be in the position that there was a problem, we recognised it and we have addressed it so confidence can be assumed in the product.

FSA view this as food standards issue, one that requires certainty in labelling to restore confidence in the food chain.

Wide range of testing has been a reaction. Want to introduce a protocol for food industry wide testing regime. Want results made public.

A reactionary sampling programme is underway this week with results expected in April.

Horse and Pork are two distinct issues. Difference between blatant substitution and accidental inclusion.

Claim that there should be no tolerance for traces. Must be proportionate
Testing: thresholds currently 1% in the FSA survey launched on 4th February.

Consequence for labelling – will we get to the stage where we might get to the stage where all beef and lamb meat products would be labelled may contain traces of pork and that might not be helpful to consumers?

Need to be seen to be acting, taking steps forward with transparent test results.

What if results do come out positive? Is 1% tolerance good enough? I.e. 100g in a 10 kilo batch. 1% is the degree of accuracy that tests can go to with any robustness. Industry asked itself if there was a mechanism to aggregate results and share this information. Those doing the most testing might end up more vulnerable. FSA said that they would like to see this the other way round.

Question about levels of consistency between laboratories.

Stewart Roberts ABP testing experience when in small quantities difficult to be consistent. True results hard to achieve consistently.

Morrisons, asked for tolerance to exclude traces. Danger of loss of confidence if industry doesn't solve this itself.

Question raised on what other Member States might set as a tolerance. ROI and cross border trade from NI was seen as a particular problem. Tesco has deployed common testing across border.

Exporters concerned not to hamstring themselves in the absence of EU regulation.