I think we’re all a little bored with the horsemeat scandal now - it’s been front page news for the past week and even upstaged the shocking news that one of Corries longest-serving characters has been charged with 19 counts of child sex offences today. But the more this drama unfolds, the more unsettling it becomes.

Lots of people are playing down the fiasco stating that horse meat is safe to eat, that we shouldn’t be concerned about possible Bute contamination (according to the Chief Medical Officer a human would have to eat 500 100% horsemeat burgers a day for it to pose any significant risk to our health), and of course, we eat cows, chickens, and all manner of other animals - why should we be up in arms over the idea of eating horse.

The problem is, that this scandal has revealed the systematic criminal adulteration of our meat supply on a pan-european level. So is it really safe? We don’t know how the meat has been transported, handled or stored. The revelation that this involves scamsters and underground criminal syndicate’s presumably means they haven’t followed correct food hygiene standards - their motivations would have been to simply make a quick buck.

Also - as this scandal has unearthed a similar problem with the supply of (and composition of) other meat products. Traces of pork have been found in some products which must be a massive concern to the Muslim community.

As Consumers surely the minimum standard we expect is that our food is correctly labelled, is legal and is safe to eat.

The controversy has taken on a snowball effect. Beginning with the news that Ireland’s FSAI (Food Standards Agency Ireland) had discovered horse meat in beef burgers sold within its supermarkets, to the Findus revelations, to this mornings announcement about Whitbread (a major supplier to the UK’s pub industry) and school supplier Compass group admitting finding traces of horse DNA in their products.

So is the Government really to blame? And if so, which Government?

Of course it would be silly to not apportion some blame to profit-driven supermarkets, and incompetent food regulators - but it’s fascinating to delve into the Governments role in this scandal.

Speaking on Question Time yesterday George Galloway condemned the Government’s handling of the scandal decrying them as being ultimately culpable for not protecting the public.

“The back-end of the pantomime horse has to be Government. We don’t elect Findus, we don’t elect food companies. We elect Government to protect us… Not only did the Labour Government abandon random testing of processed food but the Tories have cut 700 food standards officers. Now what kind of false economy is that? … The people who are supposed to regulate the activities of business in this country are the elected politicians and they’re just not even at the standing gate on that”

I struggle to work out whether I like or despise this man. He’s a fabulous orator - of that you can be certain. Whether you agree or disagree with his politics, he’s capable of eliciting impassioned responses from people. The thrust of his argument is that both the Tory and Labour partys cut-and-paste attitude to politics (deregulation and the continual cutting public services) has resulted in inferior authorities and regulatory bodies. Seemingly his party Respect, have all the answers and would singlehandedly pull the UK out of recession, end unemployment, solve the NHS crisis and bring about world peace (why not?). I couldn’t help but feel his speech was opportunistic and a perfect example of political show-boating.

Yet there is some truth in it.

It is true that Labour chose to cease the random testing of processed food in 2003. But Labour did some good too. They created the FSA which has long since become a world-renowned and respected non-ministerial government department which has led to many improvements in food safety and hygiene. Much of its success is owing to the fact that it is self-regulated and independent from Government. Unfortunately, it is this very same fact that has led to them being criticised over the horsemeat scandal.

The Government simply does not understand the true role of the FSA or have any understanding of its day-to-day activities. The Tories insist that they’ve spoken to the Chief Executive of the FSA and they’ve been given assurances that they have enough resources to tackle the problem. They state that despite having lost 700 inspectors as a result of Government cuts this is categorically ‘not a problem’ (let’s face it, the Tories are unlikely to say any differently, are they?) - the problem is that this is simply not true; the FSA are in no way equipped to handle this problem.

The truth is that these cuts have had a dramatic effect on the testing of food. Just today it has been revealed that 26 of the 153 boroughs admitted to conducting no tests at all in 2012. Moreover, despite conducting some 90,000 tests per year in 2011 and 2012 this actually represents a 40% fall on 2010. The Government weren’t necessarily aware of this as they don’t oversee what the FSA does. This lack-of-knowledge is unfortunately eerily reminiscent of the financial services crisis as it calls into question just how the Government have failed to get a handle on the most rudimentary things its regulators should be doing - in effect they aren’t regulating the regulators. This is a huge weakness that has led to many doubting their ability to run the country.

But even if these cuts have compromised the FSA, would this scandal have happened if the cuts hadn’t happened? Well yes. There are still 6300 food inspectors operating right now (there was only a 10% cut to the FSA). The fact that they are falling so woefully to regularly test our food is because this has never been their main objective. Their principal concern is to investigate the 500 or so fatal incidences of food poisoning in the UK per year and ensure food safety standards in UK eateries are being met. The FSA is there to ensure good standards but it can’t be held account for fraudulent activities in other countries.

In fact the problem is so wide and complex the FSA might never be able to handle this problem. The supply chain for processed foods is so ridiculously long and complicated with meat crossing through several countries until it reaches our supermarkets. We need a review of this supply chain and to take steps to considerably shorten it. We’ll need a dedicated task force to take control of the enquiry and ongoing regular testing. This will be expensive but without it our confidence in processed food will never be restored. If the current system can’t control the supply of food coming into this country, it’s not fit for purpose.

This problem is too big to simply blame one institution. But the Tories have been and will remain at fault if they don’t act now. Here’s a summary of all the ironies in relation to this issue:

• The Shadow Environment Secretary for Labour presented evidence to ministers in the House of Commons exactly 3 weeks ago but they sat on their hands for too long
• If it is just a criminal matter and no culpability should be placed upon the Government - why didn’t they alert the proper authorities (in this instance, the police) when it was first bought to light?
• The Tory Government has blocked attempts by the European Commission to get country of origin labels on processed meat (they’ve been trying to do so since 2011). Funnily enough Owen Patterson (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Euro sceptic) has now rushed to Brussels and said he wants this labelling in by Dec 31st!
• Tory Government removed nutritional labelling and compositional labelling and sent it to DEFRA (Owen Patterson’s baby) - effectively moving it back in-house (when they are clearly incompetent at handling the issues at hand)

SUMMARY: So what does this all mean for us?

Well unfortunately, for all the ongoing tests, we simply can’t guarantee the provenance of our meat at this time. I can guarantee this problem will get worse before it gets better as the more you look for it, the more you find. The best advice is to buy from local independent butchers who can guarantee their supply chain. Although this is expensive, we’ll just have to eat less meat, but better quality. Oh and of course, it is far better to prepare your own meals rather than eat processed food.

The real victims of this entire controversy are (yet again) the poor. With wages stagnating and cost of living going up, the demand for cheaper food is at an all time high. This means that some people on lower incomes see cheap processed meals as the most affordable way of feeding their families. Unfortunately this is just another example of the poor being defrauded and exploited.

IF YOU’VE SURVIVED READING THIS POST, I’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS