Consumers have the right to expect that the food and drink they buy is properly labelled.
When a packet of food says it is organic, it should be organic; if meat is sold as Scottish, it should be Scottish; and if a product is labelled as beef, it should be beef (and not horsemeat). Customers should have the confidence that what they eat is what they think it is.
There is no question that the horsemeat scandal last year considerably undermined what confidence there was but a new survey from the consumer watchdog Which? on fish and chip shops will do little to rebuild it. According to the survey, haddock sold in Glasgow chippies is not always haddock; in fact, in five out of 15 cases, Which? found that it was whiting, usually a much cheaper cut.
Which? has made food fraud one of its priorities. It says this is an unacceptable deception of consumers but, worse, it would appear to be more than a one-off. The chip shop survey came just a few months after the consumer watchdog tested lamb takeaways in London and Birmingham and found that 40 per cent contained other meats and that some contained no lamb at all.
The organisation's investigations may also show that the lessons of the horsemeat scandal have still to be properly learned and applied to how food and drink is sold to customers. One of the most important lessons was that producers and suppliers cannot be allowed to police themselves. But it also became clear in Scotland that a tougher inspection regime was needed.
To its credit, the Scottish Government responded and a new food agency, Food Standards Scotland (FSS), is being created and will replace the UK Food Standards Agency. FSS will have new powers, including the ability to fine anyone found breaking the rules and seize food that is found to have been mislabelled. It will also be compulsory to report non-compliance with food standard regulations.
These changes, introduced by the Food (Scotland) Bill, are promising but they are unlikely to make any difference to customers going into a chippie in Glasgow unless there is also a good chance that they will be enforced.
Sadly, we know that the number of meat inspectors and environmental health officers has been cut; last year it was also revealed that food sampling had dropped by one third in four years.
If customers are to have confidence that the haddock they buy is haddock - indeed that all their food is properly labelled - the number of inspectors will have to be increased. Scotland's new food standards agency must have bite.
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