Elliott supermarket inquiry warns of potential horsemeat repeat

4th Sep 2014 16:00

UK supermarket competition is so intense that the country is being at risk of another potential horsemeat scandal, a new government report has warned.The report, commissioned in the wake of last year's revelations that some supermarket 'beefburgers' contained high proportions of horsemeat, cautioned that the "adversarial" approach by some of the larger supermarkets' buying teams have got worse and were "a matter of concern". If the report's recommendations were followed to the hilt it could hit under-pressure supermarket margins even harder, with Elliott recommending a less aggressive approach to buying from farmers and other food producers. "The review cautions against procurement of goods for less than the recognised reasonable price, based on market knowledge. "This is neither good for the sustainability of UK farming nor the integrity of the food industry and ultimately impacts negatively on consumers."The report's author, Belfast's Queen's University food safety expert Chris Elliott, noted that the original horsemeat investigation was conducted by regulators "at least in part with insufficient experience or expertise in the investigation of serious food crime and none at all in tackling complex organised crime".In response to Elliott's recommendations by the government has announced that it will launch a new Food Crime Unit with full police powers to protect the public.Environment secretary Elizabeth Truss said this unit would strengthen consumer confidence in Britain's high quality food.However, procurement looks likely to remain unaffected in the medium-term, with other governments commitments limited to increasing the network of food analytical laboratories; improving coordination across government to protect food integrity and tackle food crime; implementing measures to ensure better intelligence sharing between the food industry and government about potential threats to food integrity; and encouraging the industry's efforts to improve supply chain audit systems. Shares in the major supermarkets were down on Thursday, with Tesco 1.27% lower, Morrison down 0.68% and Sainsbury declining 0.47% as the session neared it close.OH