12/02/13

Horsemeat scandal was 'inevitable': Andrew Fearne

Andrew Fearne, professor of value chain management, Kent Business School, Medway. by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Pressure to cut costs at every stage of the food chain has made the horsemeat scandal inevitable, according to an expert.

Andrew Fearne, head of Kent Business School at Medway, and professor of value chain management at the University of Kent, is not surprised by what had happened.

And he warned there would be more scandals to come.

It had been happening “all the time” but had only just been discovered.

“If suppliers are feeling squeezed, they’re going to be tempted to cut corners,” he said.

“My guess is there will be thousands of products where suppliers are cutting corners, shaving things off without telling anybody and hoping to get away with it.

"It’s systemic because everyone’s being squeezed and the temptation to cheat rather than go bankrupt is great.“

The horsemeat scandal was the latest example of a food chain running ever faster just to stand still, falling victim to one short cut too many in pursuit of survival.

“In the UK, thanks to the 1990 Food Safety Act, due diligence reigns, so whilst our continental horse traders may well have been testing the market for retired hunting nags, it is the supermarket buyers who are legally obliged to carry the can and, more importantly, need to wake up to the reality of commoditisation – offering more for less and turning a blind eye to the unintended consequences.”

"It’s systemic because everyone’s being squeezed and the temptation to cheat rather than go bankrupt is great" – Andrew Fearne, head of Kent Business School at Medway

By demanding cheap food, consumers had put great pressure on suppliers.

“We are all guilty,” he said. "Consumers should also ask supermarkets more questions about what was in products and were they sourced their food.

Processed frozen meat products were generally lower quality than fresh, he said.

“If it’s fresh meat, you’ve got to know where it comes from and the traceability programmes are designed to support supply chains.

"But the minute something becomes processed, the regulations are much weaker and the ability to follow a beef carcass through a process supply chain is much tougher.”

He added: “Transparency in food supply chains is entirely possible but comes at a cost.”