UK campaign raises concern over number of missed food inspections

Over fifty thousand food hygiene checks were outstanding in 2017/18, according to a Freedom of Information request obtained by the Unchecked.uk campaign. This, it says, has led to fears that serious hygiene breaches could be missed by under-resourced local authority teams.

Unchecked.uk found that only 11 percent of councils managed to carry out their planned food checks on time, while eight local authorities missed more than 1,000 inspections of local food businesses.

“Most food businesses are meeting basic hygiene standards, but compliance in high-risk premises is poor, and the number of overdue food checks raises questions about whether the UK’s food safety regime is ready for the challenges ahead. Local authority enforcement teams are just not being given the tools they need to do their job, which is undermining their efforts to keep people safe,” said Emma Rose, Project Lead at Unchecked.uk.

While there is 90 percent compliance on food safety across all premises, 80 percent of the highest risk A-rated food premises and 36 percent of B-rated food premises in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are said to be failing to meet basic food hygiene standards, such as cleanliness, correct handling of food, and temperature control. ‘Failure to meet basic food standards’ equates to businesses which achieved a hygiene rating of two or below in relation to the Food Standards Agency’s Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

A- or B-rated food businesses include establishments with a track record of poor hygiene, larger-scale premises handling raw meat or fish, premises where food contamination is more likely to happen, and businesses serving children or the elderly.

Poor hygiene practices can greatly increase the emergence and spread of bacteria which can cause food-borne illness and food poisoning, such as Campylobacter, Salmonella and E. coli O157. These infections can be highly dangerous, posing the greatest risk to babies, young children, the elderly and the ill.

The campaign voices a concern that the UK’s food system is ill-equipped to deal with additional pressures brought about by Brexit. Recently, the National Audit Office flagged serious problems in the UK’s food regulatory system. 

The Food Standards Agency’s new inspection strategy has also been flagged, with many expressing concern that it represents a weakening of UK food law enforcement. In particular, the proposal that food businesses should contract third-party assurance providers to carry out their inspections has drawn criticism. 

“Whilst local authority staff and other government inspectors work very hard, they are not being supported well enough. The Food Standards Agency now needs to take a good hard look at its failings and address them. What is needed is more truly independent local authority food inspectors on the ground, not food industry accreditation companies marking food businesses’ own homework – which is what the Agency is planning for future UK food inspections,” said Steve Nash, Consumer Advisor on E. coli O157.

Other concerns highlighted include the fact that there has been a significant increase in the number of food businesses in the past few years, which is said to pose a risk to local authorities that are already struggling to address a backlog of overdue inspections.