26th Mar 2015 06:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - The sale of government research unit the Food and Environment Research Agency to Capita PLC could undermine essential work on food safety and lead to commercial concerns being put before the public interest, Professor Tim Lang, a Westminster adviser, told The Independent.
Lang, who heads City University London?s food policy unit, told the newspaper he thinks the agency, which led the way in identifying horsemeat in the UK food chain, is now doomed to failure. The global contractor has already outlined plans to almost double sales by making the unit?s work more commercial, according to the Independent.
Lang warned that once the agency is privatised, it will be under pressure to ignore low-paying projects vital to public safety and the environment in favour of more lucrative research.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/capita-and-the-great-british-food-safety-selloff-10134275.html
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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