Farmers Weekly’s campaign to stamp out food fraud

 

Abi Kay

Abi Kay
Deputy editor, Farmers Weekly

About the campaign

A Farmers Weekly special investigation uncovered shocking food fraud and safety breaches at a major British meat processor.

Following the exposé, we launched the “Meat: Our Expectations” campaign to stamp out criminality in the meat sector.

The campaign was launched with four initial goals:

  1. Reportable: Establish an independent, short-number whistleblowing line and make it a requirement for this to be clearly displayed in factories, alongside accompanying information in multiple languages
  2. Independent: Ensure an independent body can verify how much British meat is going in and out of factories – known as the mass balance – so that dilution can be identified more easily
  3. Swift: Address the 15min gap between auditors signing into a premises and entering the factory floor
  4. Electronic: Make digital record-keeping mandatory

We have since convened a roundtable which brought together farming unions, food processors, retailers, consumer groups, crime experts and regulators to discuss the recommendations.

Two of our asks are already under active consideration by the Food Standards Agency, but we intend to refine and build upon them following the roundtable.

The final set of recommendations will be put together in a Charter for Change, which we intend to be signed by all the major players, before being presented to policy makers.

The investigation

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The campaign

CRIME

Farmers Weekly campaign win as food fraud hotline launched

Farmers Weekly’s food safety and fraud campaign, Meat: Our Expectations, has won a key victory this week, as a new 0800 food fraud hotline has been launched. The free phone…

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Meat: Our Expectations campaign continues to gain momentum

Farmers Weekly’s campaign to stamp out criminality in the meat sector continues to gain momentum, with several industry bodies agreeing to work with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to explore…

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Farmers Weekly meat sector clean-up campaign gains traction

Farmers Weekly’s Meat: Our Expectations campaign is gaining traction among regulators and industry, with two of its recommendations already under active consideration. The initiative, launched in the wake of our…

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Farmers Weekly campaign seeks to unite meat sector

Farmers Weekly is seeking the support of organisations from across the food supply chain, to help stamp out criminality in the meat sector. Our planned campaign comes on the back…

 

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