NZPSA MEDIA RELEASE 14 November 2010 For Immediate Use

Meat inspectors to take part in industry-led trials

Despite grave misgivings, independent meat inspectors have agreed to participate in trials where meat companies will carry out their own meat inspection tasks, says the New Zealand Public Service Association (NZPSA).

A six-month-long trial is due to start on Monday (Nov 15) at the Affco Imlay plant with others starting shortly at the Alliance Mataura plant and Silver Fern Farms Pareora.

Meat inspection is currently carried out by independent inspectors from state-owned enterprise AsureQuality but the meat companies themselves want to take over inspection tasks currently performed by independent meat inspectors. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) supports this change.

"Our meat inspector members are highly doubtful about these trials but the last thing they want to see is the good reputation of New Zealand meat go down the drain," says NZPSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff.

"Independent meat inspectors go through 20 weeks of training. The meat company inspectors who'll perform tasks like checking for faecal contamination, wounds and bruises, chronic pleurisy, chronic peritonitis, grass seed, parasitic protozoa, and tapeworms - will receive just two days training as these diseases and defects are not considered food safety issues by the NZFSA. This just isn't long enough," says Richard Wagstaff.

"It's essential that any new meat inspection system has integrity and transparency but it's already becoming clear that these tests don't. We understand that a number of the meat company workers taking part in the tests are actually ex-meat inspectors. You'll get a different test result from an ex-meat inspector who's given two days training to a meat worker with no inspection experience who's given two days training.

"These trial arrangements are highly questionable and do nothing to alley fears that the trials are a set up for an established agenda that's lying behind them. If they become the basis for meat companies to inspect their own product in the future we risk losing the confidence of overseas consumers.

"If meat companies take charge of their own inspection there's a danger they'll be tempted to cut corners in meat safety in the drive for greater profits and cost cutting. That's a risk simply not worth taking," says NZPSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff.
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