Starve us of funds and we will close, warns food crime unit

The Government’s food crime unit set up in the wake of the horse meat scandal will be mothballed unless it receives more funding, the head of the Food Standards Agency has warned.

Heather Hancock told The Grocer magazine that the National Food Crime Unit, set up in 2014 as part of the agency, “was a half job” and unable to function properly. Despite already costing the taxpayer £6.6million, it has not helped secure any major prosecutions.

Ms Hancock said: “The first two years were meant to be about information gathering... and local authorities and police forces have recognised there is some expertise they can draw on. But if we really want to tackle food crime we’ve got to go beyond phase one. And I’m really clear, unless we get more money we’re not doing it.”

The unit was formed in the aftermath of an inquiry in 2013 when it was revealed that horse meat had found its way into products being sold as beef and lamb.