Brexit has increased the risk of dangerous foods reaching the UK because inspectors are shut out of the EU's “rapid alert system”, ministers have been warned today.
The Food Standards Agency is still scrambling to build defences to compensate for the loss of data, the National Audit Office has found a task made more difficult by the UK scrapping planned import checks.
The regulator has admitted it needs a 65 per cent boost to its resources to “deliver the same result achieved with the EU's system,” the report warns.
In common with other regulators, Brexit has had a “negative impact on their ability to assess risks or carry out their work”, the NAO concludes.
“Failures in food safety can have catastrophic consequences for human life, public confidence, the wider economy and international trade,” the watchdog points out.
The chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee highlighted the big gap between "high-minded talk of new Brexit freedoms and what it means in practice for regulation”.
This story is from the May 18, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the May 18, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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