The FastDay Forum

Elliott did not believe the UK big retailers were anything but victims in the horsegate affair. Sainsbury’s had not been affected because it already undertook DNA testing of meat, a fact that the criminal networks knew. Marks & Spencer was not affected because it does not buy processed meat from anyone because of the potential for pork product contamination. Tesco and others have taken major hits, and incurred massive costs in their mitigating actions....

Current austerity policies in most western countries are creating new and bigger markets for criminally processed food. There is growing recognition of the problem of food poverty and acute hunger in the UK, and people who are poor are most vulnerable to being exploited by food criminals. This is in addition to being victims of the legitimate food trade, which disproportionately markets and supplies a diet of processed high fat, high trans fat, high sugar, high salt, low nutrient foods. Affordability of food is crucial, because this will militate against vulnerability to food crime.