14-1190b-innovation-managing-risk-evidence

CASE STUDY
ADAPTING REGULATION TO CHANGING EVIDENCE ON RISKS:
DELIVERING CHANGES TO PIG INSPECTION
Patrick Miller (Food Standards Agency)
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The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has led
efforts to reform pig inspection, drawing on
evidence about the changing nature of health
risks from meat — and about the behaviours of those
involved in meat production — to introduce new
controls that better reflect the risks and the realities of
inspection in practice.
Meat controls are currently based on a traditional
inspection approach, developed over 100 years ago to
tackle the public health concerns of that era, such as
parasites and defects visible to the naked eye. Today, the
main causes of foodborne disease are microbiological.
Pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and
Escherichia coli cannot be tackled adequately using
traditional inspection methods.
Meat controls are a key part of European Union food
safety controls and any changes need the support of
the European Commission, EU member states, industry
and stakeholders. As such, these changes must be
based on solid evidence and reflect practical realities
and stakeholder concerns in order to win confidence
that any change will be more risk-based, effective and
proportionate.
This takes time, but it ensures that we can be clear
about our objectives and gather evidence on how best
to meet them. For consumers, that means greater
confidence in meat safety and better protection from
risks from meat; as a regulator, it ensures the effective
use of public funds in controlling foodborne pathogens
and reducing costs for society from foodborne illness;
for business, it lowers the cost of regulation; and for
enforcers, it offers a more objective approach and
better use of resources, according to risk and impact.
Developing the evidence base
The FSA’s research programme on modernizing meat
controls aims to:
• establish the effectiveness of current and alternative
approaches to meat inspection;
• build a robust evidence base
to support a case for reform.
It includes veterinary
and risk-assessment
research, as well as social
science research to understand
attitudes and behaviours that affect
the effectiveness of controls in practice. The European
Food Safety Authority (EFSA) also provided a series
of independent expert scientific opinions related
to inspection of meat, and together with the FSA’s
research these formed the basis for initial proposals for
changes to pig meat inspection.
Openness and engagement
Alongside this process, FSA followed an active
programme of engagement and communication with
interested parties, including the European Commission,
EU member states, European Parliament the meat
industry, UK agricultural departments, EFSA experts,
and consumers.
This engagement was aided by a high degree of
openness, with information on the programme’s
objectives, research, developing proposals, and the
supporting evidence, published and discussed by the
FSA Board in open meetings 1 . A consultation on the
proposed changes ran from March–May 2014, with
extensive communication on formal introduction of
the new inspection regime, and training to support
implementation.
Outcome
The new package targets risks better by:
• Removing controls that did not help to reduce
pathogen levels in meat, and in fact actually helped to
spread contamination (through physical palpation and
incision of carcases), thus increasing consumer risk — a
serious unintended consequence of the old regime.
• Tightening controls that can reduce contamination
levels in meat, including controls on Salmonella and riskbased
testing for the parasite Trichinella.
It therefore targets resources at the real risks in ways
that will control them more effectively. The package has
received broad support from stakeholders. The FSA is
now funding research to help evaluate how the changes
operate in practice, and how
to monitor their impact.
The FSA will explore
the scope to extend this
approach in other species
(poultry, cattle and sheep),
again following an open and
evidence-based approach.