An interim report from the Institute for Global Food Security has urged the Government to set up a specialist food crime unit in the wake of the horsemeat scandal earlier this year.
Following the scandal in January when food inspectors found horsemeat in processed beef products, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) commissioned the Institute to find ways of improving the safety of UK food supply chains.
The enquiry found that the UK food sector is a “soft touch” for criminals who know that there is little chance of being detected and, even if they are, the penalties are not high enough to deter them. Meanwhile, they are able to make huge profits, due to the inadequate enforcement of regulations such as labelling.
Chairman of the report, Professor Chris Elliott said that the risk of criminal activity is therefore so great that a dedicated new food crime unit should be set up with investigative powers similar to the police to deal with it and suggests a non-Home Office force with the capacity to deal with “complex food crime perpetrated by highly organised and dangerous, potentially violent criminals”.
According to the report, the food industry should not relax efforts to provide safe food, but must also consider the prevention of food crime a “primary objective” and has called on the food industry and the Government to create “intelligence hubs” to gather, analyse and spread information about it.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson welcomed the report and said he was pleased that it recognises that there are good systems in place to ensure UK consumers have access to some of the safest food in the world. He added that it is appalling, however, that anyone was able to defraud the public by passing off horsemeat as beef.