Commenting on the Optimisation Report prepared by the Food Standards Agency, the Meat Hygiene Service and meat industry representatives, a BMPA spokesman told FoodProductionDaily.com:
“The industry and the tax payer, who shares the bill, will benefit form a more efficient and effective service. In particular the Business Agreement will help foster a more commercial and constructive relationship between Food Business Operators and the MHS.”
The Business Agreement between operators and the MHS sets out an individual abattoir’s hours of operation, staff requirements providing greater transparency about operating costs, he added.
MHS resources
The report was written after the optimization team visited 19 abattoirs in Great Britain to study the reasons behind variations in the deployment of MHS resources. It concluded that there could be more efficient use of MHS staff across many sites and this would be achieved by improvements in working practices of either MHS, the FBO, a combination of both or changes to FSA policy and the respective rural affairs departments.
The area were most improvement could be made was the legal requirement relating to animal identification, according to the report. Checks carried out by MHS staff duplicate checks conducted by FBOs, it said.
Also, the working patterns of individual slaughterhouses could be improved and changes to the layout of abattoirs could result in significant energy savings.
Basis of cooperation
Kenneth Clarke, FSA veterinary adviser who co-authored the report said: “We are confident that this (report) should be the basis of co-operation between the regulator and the industry….we look forward to working together to make these efficiencies a reality.”
Meanwhile, BMPA urged all parties to focus on the development of the inspection process:
“Industry and government need to continue to work together to identify ways in which to improve the delivery of inspection services under the existing regulatory framework and to develop a set of proposals to evaluate the costs and benefits of current rules against where we want official inspection to be in 10 years time,” said its spokesman.