A LABOUR FRONTBENCHER has suggested that thousands of tonnes of horsemeat may have entered the food supply chain in the three year’s prior to 2013’s food crisis.
Mary Creagh, who was Labour’s environment secretary at the time of the scandal, says she has evidence to back up her claims.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4 Ms Creagh said: “The number of horses slaughtered in Britain has halved over the past year – so what that tells you is probably 50% of the horses that were being slaughtered in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were destined for some sort of criminal meat trade.”
The news that horsemeat had been found in products stocked by a major supermarket led to a far-reaching investigation into the food supply chain, across the globe.
Reports into the spread of food fraud suggested that the problem was systematic, prompting the UK Government to commission a report into Britain’s food system.
A preliminary report, by Professor Chris Elliott, was published in December 2013, and calls for the creation of a specialist police unit to tackle the issues around food fraud.
It wasn’t all gloom though; Elliott’s report also showed that progress was being made to improve existing systems and improve areas of weakness.
The full Elliott is due out in the Spring.
