Dear
Please protect my food and prevent visual-only inspection of pigs
My trade union UNISON is supporting the campaign by the European Working Community for
Food inspection and Consumer protection (EWFC) against a relaxation in the controls that regulate
the meat industry. The EWFC was founded in 1991 and is a platform for food safety and food
safety analysts from all countries of the European Union.
So what is happening?
On 31st August 2011, the European Commission (EC) asked the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA) to look at and assess hazards to public health posed by meat production, the effectiveness
of arrangements in place to avoid those hazards and whether they were proportionate to the risks.
They looked first at pigs. EFSA put forward three proposals to change slaughterhouse production
methods and meat inspection. MEPs who sit on the European Environment, Public Health and
Food Safety Committee voted on 25th September 2013 to reject these changes and keep physicalinspection of pigs.
What came out of this investigation?
Three recommendations emerged from the investigation through the Standing Committee on Food
Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) choose to only implement one – visual-only inspection of pig
carcasses and an end to physical inspection. They proposed these changes in annexes to the
Regulations (EC) No 854/2004 of the European Parliament and Council as well as Regulation (EC)
No 2074/2005. This recommendation was the only one representing a cost saving to the meat
industry and a reduction in official controls.
Why I agree with the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee
I believe changes put forward by the EC to stop physical inspection of pigs and then subsequently
other farmed animals, will weaken protection for European consumers as follows:

Ending the incision of the lymph nodes will mean that abscesses, tuberculosis, lesions and
other pathology will be processed unseen into the food chain and eaten by European
consumers



The advice issued by the EFSA has started the journey to visual-only inspection and
centres on the belief that physical checks on pigs increases cross-contamination. However,
EFSA also stated that the head of the pig should be removed from the carcass at the
earliest opportunity. This recommendation is designed to limit cross-contamination and to
enhance consumer protection by ensuring that infected lymph nodes could still be
examined and unfit meat excluded from the human food chain.
Visual-only inspection will place the responsibility of protecting our food on the
slaughterhouses and not independent meat inspection. Consumer confidence in the meat
industry remains shaken and low because of the adulteration and mislabeling of meat
products evident from the horse meat scandal. Unless these changes are stopped, the
ability and powers of inspectors to properly check pig carcasses for disease, ill-health and
even contamination by faeces, will be substantially reduced.
Visual-only inspection has been abandoned in Germany in favour of physical inspection as
it compromises consumer protection
A recent survey published by Mintel showed that only 49% of consumers trusted the safety
of their food and 37% disagreed that supermarkets were aware of its origin1. Further recent
independent research conducted for Labelling Matters shows that 83% of consumers in the
UK want to know which farm system has been used to produce their meat and dairy
products, 79% said farm animal welfare was important when deciding which food products
to buy2.
A UK study published earlier this year by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), comparing visual-only
and physical inspection methods, revealed that visual-only inspection did not lead to a statistically
significant reduction in cross-contamination. However, the study did show that it produced a 53%
increase in undetected faecal contamination of carcasses. In other words, visual-only inspection
failed to identify over a third of incidents where faeces was evident on meat3.
What am I asking you to do as my MEP?
I am asking you to attend and vote to support the Environment, Public Health and Food
Safety Committee decision at the next European Parliament sitting between 7th and 10th
October.
I do hope that you will agree with me that consumer protection and safety is vital for
consumer confidence in the meat industry through rigorous physical inspection.
The full guidance and the reasons to object is on the EWFC website: http://ewfc.org/en/.
Yours sincerely,
1
http://www.globalmeatnews.com/Industry-Markets/UK-consumers-show-mistrust-of-food-industry
http://www.labellingmatters.org/latest-news/groundbreaking-study-shows-that-consumers-want-to-know-how-their-food-isproduced.html
3
http://food.gov.uk/science/research/choiceandstandardsresearch/meatcontrolsprojects/fs145003/#.UjBlp9K38mE
2