CIEH respond to the BBC investigation connecting the rise of foodborne illness to delays in food hygiene inspections

In light of the steady rise of foodborne illnesses over the past two years, and the BBC’s recent findings connecting this to the delays in local authority food hygiene inspections, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health [CIEH] has issued a statement in response, highlighting the workforce challenges facing the environmental health profession. 

CIEH are calling upon the Labour government to prioritise additional funding for local authorities’ environmental health teams and provide sufficient ringfenced funding for apprentices and trainees to help ensure the UK has a sustainable profession that can adequately protect public health. Alongside this, CIEH is also taking proactive steps to overcome the capacity and capability challenges by working with key stakeholders to ensure the profession is accessible while maintaining its necessary skills criteria and campaigning to raise the profile of environmental health. 

CIEH underscores the essential role environment health plays in protecting public health, with environmental health teams across the country working tirelessly to authenticate the UK’s food and subsequently advise, inspect and enforce food safety and hygiene standards. Everyone within the wider food system plays an important role in protecting the health and safety of the public, with environmental health professionals forming a key part of the defence against foodborne illnesses via food hygiene inspections. The priority should now be upon strengthening environmental health’s ability to prevent against future outbreaks, which will reduce the mounting pressures on the health system.  

It is important to have a holistic view and consider all the factors effecting the identification, prevention and mitigation of foodborne illnesses including consumer guidance, food handling education, post-Brexit food safety regulation and as the CIEH have recognised, the critical workforce challenges across local authorities.  

As evident in CIEH's 2021 workforce survey, LGA’s local government capacity survey and our President’s recent BMJ article there is an urgent need to tackle the capacity and capability crisis across environmental health, which is severely compromising our profession’s ability to carry out crucial functions, such as regulatory delivery related to food safety.  

Fran McCloskey, Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, said:

"Environmental health professionals are the unsung heroes of public health – they are our first line of defence against foodborne illnesses, and work with wider businesses, organisations and policy makers to ensure the UK’s food safety.  

The recent E.coli outbreak underscores the crucial need to address the wider problems across the UK’s food system, including the recruitment and retention crisis facing environmental health teams in local authorities.  

CIEH continue to call upon the Government to take urgent action to address the workforce shortages and capacity challenges facing our profession to strengthen environmental health’s ability to review and prevent future outbreaks."