Consumers' health 'put at risk' through Government budget cuts

The UK's local authority food law enforcement annual report​ showed public health was being put at risk due to such failures, which were likely to get worse.

Pubs, restaurants, takeaways and food processing plants were all covered in the report, which was compiled from local governments' environment health information between 2014 and 2015.

"The overall position is one of growing concern," it said. "At a local level, there are a good number of authorities that are struggling to undertake interventions of food businesses at the required frequencies.

"More generally, the number of food businesses and customer complaints continue to rise, while local authority staff resources, intervention and sampling levels, continue to fall."

Rising concern about food quality​

Inspections were falling despite rising concern about food quality, an increasing presence of the potentially lethal food-poisoning bug campylobacter and the 2013 horsemeat scandal.

Chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Anne Godfrey warned the UK's hospitality sector was in danger of being damaged as a result of cuts to environmental health.

"Going to eat out should be an enjoyable experience and consumers should expect the food they are eating is safe," she said.

"Food inspections and sampling are important checks, forming the basis of the food hygiene ratings scores, which are designed to provide robust information as well as allowing consumers to know exactly what the inspector has found.

"If the system fails in places, the risks to people's health and wellbeing are likely to increase."

New food businesses were continuing to open and had increased by 6.7% in 2010-2011 to a total of 627,425 in 2014-2015, the report showed.

Despite there being more food businesses operating in the UK, interventions from environmental health had decreased, which was "possibly due to more targeted sampling", said the report.

Risk-based approach​

Figures from local authorities showed that, in most cases, local authorities were continuing to adopt a risk-based approach when targeting businesses.

They were using their resources on high-risk businesses, such as those with poor compliance, instead of undertaking interventions at lower-risk establishments.

Further budget cuts would decrease the effectiveness and resilience of the regulatory system further, food safety experts recently wrote in a letter to George Osborne.

The authors, who included Professor Chris Elliott, who led the review into the horsemeat crisis, warned further cuts would also "reduce consumer confidence in [local authorities'] ability to protect their health".

The letter also stipulated that if something wasn't done soon, there was a risk of consumer trust in the Government's ability to maintain food safety standards in the UK.