Independent government meat inspection at risk

Independent government meat inspection at risk

Transferring the role of meat inspection from independent government officials to meat company employees will be disastrous for the country’s multi-billion dollar meat industry says the Public Service Association (PSA).

Meat inspection is currently carried out by inspectors from state owned enterprise AssureQuality but the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) wants to hand this responsibility over to the meat companies themselves.

“This is like getting the fox to guard the chicken coop,” says PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff.

“An independent assessor is not at the same risk of being unduly influenced or pressurised by an employer as an employee is.

“Many of our export markets, particularly the European Union, demand inspection be carried out by independent government officials. That government seal of approval provides quality assurance for importers of New Zealand meat,” says Richard Wagstaff.

But national and international consumers could soon be at risk of consuming non-inspected meat from the Alliance Mataura, Affco Imlay and Silver Fern Farms Pareora plants where from November the NZFSA will begin six months of industry-led inspection trials.

“These trials represent a dumbing down of the inspection procedure. Inspections will be reduced to looking for lumps and bumps instead of diseases and this could be to the detriment of a huge national industry and the health of consumers.

“Having meat companies inspect themselves is equivalent to no inspection. Our members believe these trials will put consumers at risk of eating non inspected meat.

“This dumbing down goes against the public sector ethos of our members at AssureQuality and they may simply end up not participating in the trials for fear of compromising their professional integrity.

“Independent government inspection plays a vital part in the meat industry. It gives a guarantee to overseas consumers that the New Zealand meat they are buying is a product of high value and one they can trust.

“There are plenty of overseas examples where the lack of rigorous inspection of food products at source has resulted in the loss of markets abroad and caused undue human harm. Do we really want to put one of our most valuable export industries at risk to safe the relatively minor cost of independent government inspections?

“It’s time the meat industry stopped viewing independent inspections as an unnecessary cost and recognised the important role it plays in safeguarding its profits,” says Richard Wagstaff.

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