Minister backs aims of Farmers Weekly’s food fraud campaign

Farming minister Mark Spencer has backed the aims of Farmers Weekly’s Meat: Our Expectations campaign, just as Iceland stores in Ireland were forced to withdraw items from their shelves due to a lack of traceability.

The initiative, launched in the wake of our exclusive investigation into long-standing, industrial-scale food fraud and food safety breaches at a processor that cannot be named for legal reasons, outlined four demands to stamp out criminality in the meat sector (see “Four recommendations”).

See also: Meat: Our Expectations campaign continues to gain momentum

Asked whether he would support the campaign at the Cereals event in Nottinghamshire this week, Mr Spencer said he was “a fan of Farmers Weekly”, which is “always on the side of the farming sector”.

“I broadly support the ambitions Farmers Weekly is trying to achieve,” he added.

Two of the campaign recommendations are already under active consideration by the Food Standards Agency, but we intend to refine and build on the current asks following a roundtable event with industry and consumer group representatives.

Mr Spencer’s comments come as Iceland in Ireland was forced to withdraw from its stores all frozen food of animal origin that has been imported since 3 March 2023.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) also directed the company to recall the implicated product from its consumers and advised shoppers not to eat it.

Products that contain any food of animal origin, including eggs and dairy products, are included in the recall.

FSAI made the move because there was “inadequate evidence of traceability” and said there had been an number of incidents of non-compliance with import control legislation since 3 March 2023.

Dr Pamela Byrne, the authority’s chief executive, said: “To date, while we have no reports of any illness associated with implicated products from Iceland Ireland stores, in the absence of the company providing valid and correct traceability documentation as required by the law, we have to take a precautionary approach to best protect consumers, as we cannot be fully confident of the traceability and safety of these imported frozen foods of animal origin.”