Food agencies appoint challenge group to review meat plants

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have established a challenge group to provide scrutiny on the review into meat-cutting plants and cold stores for the first time in order to oversee the progress made so far.

In March this year, the FSA and FSS announced that they will carry out a review of meat cutting premises and cold stores.

The review was carried out by the food regulators in response to non-compliance issues identified at various cutting plants.

The newly appointed group members were welcomed into their roles by the chief executives of FSA and FSS.

The CEO’s from both organisations are said to have outlined the objectives of the review to the group.

Under the new initiative, teams from both organisations will be working together to gather all available evidence in the food industry and determine whether further evidence is required.

The challenge group will provide scrutiny to the process and also have the power and authority to challenge the activities being carried out against the objectives that have been set food regulators.

The review will provide updates to FSS and FSA boards on a regular basis before final recommendations and delivery plans are presented in September this year.