Workplace Report April 2009

Health & safety - HSE Monitor

UNISON welcomes meat safety review

“Light touch” enforcement of meat hygiene should be reviewed and more resources put into food safety, says UNISON, the union which organises meat inspectors. The union welcomed the recommendations in the Pennington inquiry report published in March.

Simon Watson, UNISON national officer for meat said: “It is absolutely crucial that the industry acts on these recommendations to restore public confidence. We welcome ‘light touch’ enforcement being reviewed, as it is clear that it simply isn’t working.”

The union also warned that levels of bad practice and meat contamination are higher now than during the huge E.coli outbreak in South Wales in 2005.