Slaughterhouse Social Science Research Project for the Food Standards Agency

In 2011, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned Ipsos to explore the interplay between the official inspection team and slaughterhouse staff and the environment within which they operate. In parallel to the EU review of official meat controls, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reviewing the current system of meat hygiene inspection in slaughterhouses to ensure it is risk based, proportionate, targeted and cost effective. FSA’s review of meat controls can be found on its website. The current system requires a permanent presence of inspectors in the majority of premises that slaughter and the nature of the relationship between regulator and regulated was one of the key areas of investigation for this study. The study helped to improve and deepen the FSA’s understanding of those involved in the delivery of inspection and to gain insight into the potential impact of regulatory reform.

Findings from the Slaughterhouse Social Science Research Project

Overall the study found that some slaughterhouses want the current regulatory regime replaced with a more targeted one that ensures greater recognition of good levels of compliance. Some officials were also critical of the current regime.

Pending the outcome of the EU’s review of regulation of slaughterhouses, Ipsos presented the FSA with some ideas on how some of these issues might be addressed within the current regime:

• Equipping slaughterhouses to take further ownership of food safety for example promoting the potential benefits to business
• Enabling inspectors to be more effective in terms of selection, training and support
• Responsive and transparent regulation to improve reputation of regulators among industry

The report also included typologies to help explain under what circumstances different approaches to regulation are more or less effective.

Technical note:

A scoping stage that included desk research and stakeholder interviews was utilised to help provide insight into the current regulatory regime, and to inform the research design. In order to best meet the objectives of this study a case study approach was used.

Mixed-method case studies, consisting of two-day visits to 24 slaughterhouses across the UK, combined evidence from three key sources:

• Observation was a crucial part of understanding behaviours in the slaughterhouse environment, and the factors underpinning the delivery of official controls: this approach enabled us to see what key players actually did, not just what they said they did.
• In-depth interviews enabled detailed exploration of participants’ perceptions and the reasons for these perceptions: ideal for a study where one of the primary aims was to gain insight into the complex factors underpinning behaviours.
• Additionally, an on-site document review enabled additional understanding of site specific behaviours and during the interviews researchers drew on these cases to build a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the slaughterhouse context.