SMALL food producers are under threat from “aggressive” inspectors intent on eliminating practices that do not meet the clinical standards of processed food, it has been claimed.
Artisan producers are uniting to fight what they regard as an increasingly risk-averse attitude by environmental health officers and the government quango Food Standards Scotland (FSS).
They are dismayed by the treatment of Errington Cheese, the Lanark firm forced to withdraw its products after it was linked to an E.coli outbreak in July in which a three-year-old girl from Dunbartonshire died.
Errington disputes the link and has signalled its intention to resume trading. It has the support of top chefs, producers and food experts who believe this case is indicative of an increasingly authoritarian attitude by inspectors in recent years.
A new pressure group called the Committee For the Defence of Artisan Food has been created “defend small businesses and artisans producing real, healthy, small-scale foods against any arbitrary, unreasonable, disproportionate actions by food and/or public health authorities”.
One scallop fisherman — who still supplies the plush Three Chimney’s restaurant on Skye — said he has been banned from trading outside the Highlands.
David Oakes, of Sconsor Scallops, said: “I used to supply scallops to Bute House [the First Minister's official residence]. Alex Salmond came to visit us and we were really expanding the business.
“But then the banking crash happened and all these government agencies started trying to prove their worth to keep their jobs and justify their existence, and common sense went right out the window.
“We were about to start supplying scallops to Chequers [the Prime Minister’s Buckinghamshire retreat], but two years ago I got a positive result for E.coli in a part of the scallop that you don’t even eat and I was shut down.”
Rachel Hammond, of Hammond Charcuterie in Eyemouth, cures meats without the excessive salt, sugar and chemicals used in industrial processing.
She said: "I tread the line between what food standards officers regard as a clinical approach and what I regard as being good quality and taste. We know more about the safety of our food than most food standards officers.
“Environmental health officers have sweeping powers and can stop you using their equipment if they don’t ‘feel’ that it is up to the task.
“It’s a very difficult position to be in if you don’t have a science degree to come against this juggernaut of legislation and scientific blah blah. It’s really quite terrifying.”
Sunday Herald restaurant and food critic Joanna Blythman said: “FSS, only set up in 2015, is taking a much more aggressive line with small producers than the Food Standards Agency, its equivalent in England and Wales, which was set up in 2000.
“FSS seems to typify the old-fashioned, Presbyterian mindset, that real food, like sex, is a dangerous appetite and indulgence to be feared and curbed.
“FSS uses a velvet glove when dealing with big industrial food companies and a fist of steel when dealing with the small ones.”
Chef Christopher Trotter, Fife Council’s Food Ambassador, said: “Scotland is the only part of the UK where you can’t buy raw milk, and they try to eliminate it at every turn. The risks of raw milk products are worth it because the cheese is absolutely delicious.
“In the past they have simply advised the elderly, the sick and the young not to eat them, which is fine because that is the sort of information people need.
“Now we have the nanny state saying ‘we won’t let you have it’ rather than letting people make their own choices.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The response to the outbreak of E.coli in 2016 was managed by a multi-agency incident team lead by Health Protection Scotland. The team operated in line with national guidance and followed the same approach used for other outbreaks.”
A spokesman for The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland said its members “support local food producers to provide quality products”.
He said: “Only when there is a problem do they take action. Safety is paramount – enforcement is a last resort.”
Michael McGlynn, South Lanarkshire Council’s enterprise director, said: “[Errington] cheese remains the subject of a food alert for action that was issued by Food Standards Scotland, and the terms of this would have to be amended before the cheese could be placed on the market.”
The artisan defence committee will hold its first public meeting on February 2 at 7pm in The Sanctuary, Augustine United Church, in Edinburgh.
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