Issue
Meat crime poses a serious and growing threat to human and animal health. It includes:
- The illegal killing of animals for the production of ‘smokies’ – an Afro-Caribbean delicacy produced when the skin of a sheep or goat is blow-torched to give a characteristic charred flavour
- The ‘cleaning up’ and reintroduction of waste or condemned meat into the food chain
- The illegal importation of bush meat which has the potential to introduce exotic diseases including ebola to the UK
What the CIEH is doing:
The CIEH is campaigning to:
- Raise public awareness about the risks involved in consuming illegal meat
- Improve partnership working between government, its agencies and local authorities
- Achieve the Introduction of more stringent penalties for meat crime
We have:
- Organised two national conferences on meat crime
- Conducted research into the amount of resources available to local authorities to effectively tackle meat crime
- Run a series of high profile press campaigns and gained extensive coverage in national and specialist media
Results
- The Food Standards Agency has set up a meat crime task force to provide logistical and financial support to local authorities tackling meat crime
- The media attention given to this problem has helped expose illegal meat gangs operating in the UK to other enforcement agencies including the police and the Inland Revenue