APA News
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'About time Tesco!' say RSC and Association of Public Analysts
In the press release, President of the APA and RSC Fellow, Liz Moran said: “Every local authority is required to appoint a Public Analyst under the Food Safety Act 1990.
“Thirty years ago, we had more than 40 Public Analyst laboratories operating across the UK. But the squeeze on local authority funding over the years means that we have only 18 laboratories left now. The number of appointed Public Analysts in the UK has also fallen, from more than 100 in 1956 to just over 30 currently appointed - a fall of more than 60 per cent.
“This means that Public Analysts are appointed to many more than one authority.”
She continued: “Since well before the current economic crisis, funding and resources for food sampling and analysis have been progressively falling. This means that the number of products that can be tested has fallen rapidly, leading to a risk-based system in the UK where only products in which there is a known problem are tested.
