A dangerous time for a squabble when consumer demand is volatile EU veterinary inspectors' allegations of inadequate meat safety and traceability controls in UK processing plants have provoked a furious reaction from the Food Standards Agency, which claims media coverage of their accusations could have caused unnecessary consumer alarm. Inspectors from the European Commission's Dublin based Food and Veterinary Office visited half a dozen plants in January and their report containing criticism of safety standards and procedures was sent to the UK authorities last month. The FSA subsequently prepared an action plan, implicitly acknowledging the need for some minor changes. However, the FVO's findings as recently reported by the media, notably The Guardian on June 15, are contested by the FSA as including wildly inaccurate claims of lax enforcement of hygiene regulations. On Tuesday the FSA published a letter it sent to Peter Prendergast, the European Commission director general responsible for the FVO, noting "with regret" that the official report stated as one of its conclusions that the production of meat products, minced meat and meat preparations "gives rise to serious concern". The FSA claimed the term "serious concern" had not been clarified by the FVO. More significantly, the FSA letter claims: "At [a] meeting with UK officials of January 19, your inspectors assured us their findings did not give them cause for concern about the level of public health protection in the UK.... The use of the term serious concern' seems to contradict this." An apparent embarrassment for the FSA in its dispute with the EU inspectors is its coincidental admission of a failure in its BSE control procedures. On Tuesday the FSA reported banned spinal cord had been found at a Bristol cutting plant, in a ewe carcase previously inspected and stamped by a Meat Hygiene Service inspector. The inspector was transferred to another plant while the matter was investigated. In fact the admission was typical of the FSA and Meat Hygiene Service, which have track records of quickly acknowledging problems. Inspection anomalies and similar events are reported in published monthly bulletins, though these rarely attract media attention. Although the confrontation is causing amusement in the meat trade as a squabble between bureaucrats, it is regarded as dangerous at a time when consumer demand is fragile following BSE and FMD, and perhaps jeopardises the UK industry's eventual rebuilding of export business. {{M/E MEAT }}