As the peak body for the British meat industry, BMPA and its members are committed to raising the bar and maintaining the UK industry’s international reputation for high standards.

This industry is already highly regulated but we provide additional technical guidance and advice both to members and policy makers to encourage not just compliance but constant improvement.

BMPA owns and manages the BMPA Pork Scheme, which sets part of the standard for the well-known Red Tractor consumer logo. We also contribute to ongoing Government consultations on all aspects of the transportation, slaughter, cutting and processing operations our members are involved in.

We are sensitive to changes in what British consumers are asking for and their concerns about the quality and sustainability of their food supply. Part of our role is to listen to these concerns and then work with our members and the wider industry to address them. Over the years, this approach has resulted in a much better regulated and more transparent meat industry.

Maintaining and streamlining standards into the future

The UK meat industry has some of the highest standards of hygiene and welfare in the world. The UK also has some of the highest production costs and meat prices in the world.

But over recent years we have seen a significant increase in the volume and complexity of compliance. Post-Brexit red tape for exports and now imports has added a huge amount of extra cost and time to operations. We believe there must be a balance between demanding those high standards and the over-bureaucratisation of how companies are asked to demonstrate they meet them.

Additionally, despite having a single market for goods across the UK, there is additional complication when dealing with the devolved administrations, which all have their own competent authorities and work to slightly different rules.

We’d like to see a simplification and standardisation of compliance to remove the duplication and administrative burden on companies. This in turn would bring down the cost to the consumer, whilst preserving a universally accepted and understood system of standards.