CLA calls on Government to reject FSA plans for meat inspection

The CLA has urged the Government not to accept plans from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to force the full cost of meat inspections on to the industry after the FSA Board announced its approval today (25 May).

The Association and several other farming and countryside organisations expressed their concerns in a letter to The Times newspaper this week but the FSA has approved plans which will cost farmers and abattoirs an estimated 25 million.

CLA President William Worsley said: Concerns over the FSAs plans extend beyond the meat and livestock industry into the wider impact this would have on landscape, the environment and the local food economy.

Full cost recovery would have significantly adverse consequences for the abattoir sector, both large and small scale operators, as well as imposing further cost on an industry that is already struggling.

We cannot afford to lose the vital link in the chain which means that people can buy meat from animals that have been reared locally and processed with the least possible stress.

Mr Worsley added: The FSAs plans are not sufficient to prevent widespread damage to the abattoir sector and I have written to the Minister urging him not to back the FSAs proposals.