RSSL scientist recognised for efforts during horsemeat crisis

Barbara Hirst was shortlisted by the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) in the Food & Drink Scientist of the year category for her work with the UK food industry in the height of the scandal.

Hirst, head of RSSL's DNA and protein laboratory, led a team that tested thousands of beef products for horsemeat and enabled manufacturers/suppliers to respond urgently to consumer concerns.

She helped customers establish programmes of testing to help avoid a recurrence of the issue and to address issues of authenticity.

Huge recognition​

Karen Masters, RSSL commercial operations manager, told FoodQualityNews.com that unfortunately Hirst did not win the award but nomination was a huge recognition for her work.

“It was to recognise Barbara for the help and support she gave industry through horsemeat. We submitted what she had done with supporting evidence and comments from customers and her work around analysis and the science behind it.”​

Hirst also provided consultancy and advice to customers and was a lead figure in industry groups that supported members during the crisis.

Masters said the Food Safety Authority Ireland (FSAI) discovered the issue late last year and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) ramped up the pressure to do testing and understand how broad the problem was.

“Customers were contacting us for help and support, food processors and meat processors were under pressure to understand how big the issue may be and had to provide weekly results for the FSA in the early days.​

“It was a challenge for the science with the results wanting decimal points in the percentage of horsemeat, so we had to explain how the testing works, what it could and could not do and explain the context around that.”​

Increased demand​

She said some people were already doing meat speciation testing but the increased demand coupled with the limited number of other labs that could offer sufficient testing made the initial period “intense” with requests coming “thick and fast”.

“People weren’t always clued up so we would advise on the types of testing they could do as customers made decisions on the basis of the result so it was important they understood in sufficient detail.​

“The level of testing increase for sure, industry had not looked at cross contamination in great detail. For example, turkey and chicken being running on the same line industry was not looking at cross contamination but at quality.​

“Due diligence will affect other areas like authenticity, traceability and the supply chain has changed, industry will never go back to pre-horsegate. There is more focus on verifying ingredients and what they put into the pack is labelled correctly.” ​

Masters said RSSL guided people on how many samples to take and of what.

“We gave advice on targeted sampling and testing so they could be better prepared to take control of their supply chain. ​

“Testing should be done on a risk assessment basis representative of a particular answer and the question that you are asking. It needs to be representative of the bigger batch that has been manufactured.​

“I think meat speciation testing will continue, horsemeat had a big effect on the industry keeping supply chain’s under control, people are more aware and key companies making sure they do the right test and they are properly validated.”  ​