Is food and drink doing enough to tackle modern slavery?

By Dene Mullen2025-09-29T13:25:00

A decade after the Modern Slavery Act was introduced to much acclaim, UK food and drink supply chains remain exposed. Are retailers and suppliers doing enough to change that?

Pavel was homeless in his native Czech Republic when he was offered a job and somewhere to live in the UK. He readily accepted. But upon his arrival, the criminal gang that brought him over confiscated his passport, forced him to work 70-hour weeks at McDonald’s, and stole most of his salary.

One of 16 victims, a BBC investigation in September last year showed that multiple warning signs of modern slavery were missed for years (see box, p34) while the men worked at a McDonald’s franchise in Cambridgeshire between 2015-2019 and Hoddeson and Tottenham factories run by Speciality Flatbreads, a bread company that supplied Asda, Co-op, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose, between 2012-2019.

So, one year on from the investigation’s release, has anything changed?

Is food and drink doing enough to tackle modern slavery?

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