Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of meat fraud whereby expensive meat is replaced with a cheaper product; and how many successful prosecutions there have been for such offences in the last 12 months.

The Food Standard Agency’s (FSA's) understanding of meat species substitution is derived from sampling data submitted by local authorities to the United Kingdom Food Surveillance System. Whilst these data indicate the presence of substitution they are inconclusive as to the prevalence of this practice across the wider industry.

The FSA collects data annually from local authorities regarding the number of prosecutions they have taken. We do not collect information on the specific details of the individual cases.