Letter: Food scandal
Given the multiple crises affecting our food supply chains it is not surprising that cheap filler ingredients make their way on to supermarket shelves.
The relentless rise of food prices – including feed price for animals – means that processors will have to be increasingly inventive to continue to provide the cheap food the supermarkets require.
Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns mean that recent price rises are probably the beginning of a long-term trend.
At the same time massive cuts at the Food Standards Agency have left it hardly able to provide its most basic duties regarding food safety and traceability.
The work they carried out on issues such as food labelling and nutrition has all but ceased, at a time when it is most desperately needed.
With inadequate policing of this massive industry these scandals will continue.
It is surely time for a regulator of the supermarkets and food processors with real powers, a well funded body properly monitoring what is being placed in processed food.
But more importantly we need to relocalise the food chain; reducing waste, improving traceability and supporting our farmers – creating a system of food production with resilience in face of the challenges of a changing climate.
Caroline Allen
Animal welfare spokeswoman
Green Party
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Newmarket
Friday 24 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
