Company meat inspection trial – sham from start to finish

Statements from the Affco meat company that it has a green light from overseas markets following a company-led meat inspection trial shows the trial has been nothing more than a front for a preordained outcome, says the PSA.

The public sector union represents independent government meat inspectors who have been voicing their concerns over the safety of meat being processed at the Affco Imlay meat plant since a company-led meat inspection trial began there last year.

“The meat industry and Food Safety Authority have not been transparent throughout this trial. We asked to meet to look at being party to developing a new meat inspection system– one that was transparent and credible but that request was denied,” says the union’s National Secretary Richard Wagstaff.

“We’ve even been denied access to the Imlay plant and had to file legal proceedings to meet with our members there.

“The Food Safety Authority assured the PSA that we would be kept informed on the trial’s progress and its conclusion. That hasn’t happened despite repeated requests from the PSA to meet with the Food Safety Authority (FSA) and the Food Safety and Trade ministers,” says Richard Wagstaff.

“There’s also been weeks of double messaging on whether the trial is over or not. Affco say the trial has ended but we have not had any confirmation that this is the case despite the fact that we are meant to be taking part in analysing the findings. In my last conversation with Carol Barnao, acting head at the FSA, she assured me the trial was continuing.

“Before the trial started the Minister for Food Safety and representatives from the Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) informed us that the United States had approved the company-led inspection trial and would accept meat from it. We later learned that meat from the plant couldn’t be exported to the US because authorities there had not been informed of the trail.

“PSA representatives met with US consumer groups and representatives of the Department of Agriculture in Washington last month. Officials there told us that they still have not seen a final protocol from the trial.

“If the government wants to grow the meat sector from $8 billion to $14 billion by 2025, keeping export partners like the US well-informed on our inspection systems is vitally important.

Given the important role independent meat inspection plays in the success of the industry it’s clearly time the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), to which the Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) is attached, comes clean on its deregulation plans,” says Richard Wagstaff.

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