Trading Standards officers from Derbyshire County Council are working with the Food Standards Agency to check for horsemeat in beef products. 

The authority is one of 28 local authorities in the UK asked by the FSA to take part in the large-scale survey following the discovery of horsemeat in burgers and frozen lasagne. Officers from Derbyshire Trading Standards are taking samples of beef burgers, minced beef and meatballs from around the county, including from supermarkets, wholesalers, small retailers and caterers.

The samples will then be sent away for analysis with the results due to be published by the FSA in April.

''We are supporting the Government’s drive to thoroughly investigate beef products so consumers can be confident in what they are buying.  In Derbyshire, our Trading Standards team continually monitor all kinds of produce to check its quality and content.  We also have a strong Animal Welfare team.''

“We are happy to be working with the FSA to help ensure shoppers have confidence in what they are buying.”

Every year Derbyshire County Council Trading Standards takes hundreds of food samples to protect the health and wellbeing of Derbyshire residents, where we send samples collected to one of three labs we employ in England. 

Last year we launched a campaign to reduce the level of salt and sugar in bread and sausages produced by local bakers and butchers, I was pleased with the uptake from our Food and Drink Sector which has a wealth of locally produced goods which are healthy options and correctly labelled for consumers.

In fact, our School Meals service only sources meat produced by two local organic farms, which have strong traceability, including knowing the origins of the animals from where the meat came from.  We also randomly and regularly check the food that is produced by our School Meals Services which is free from any ready meal preparation.

As I said on BBC Radio Derby this morning, whilst as a nation we get to grips to this food fraud, and following our efforts to support the FSA national survey programme which I am confident will lead to tighter industry regulation and food labelling standards, ''support your local butcher on the high street and in our local markets, ask where they sourced their meet from, and ask for preparation and cooking tips when shopping, this level of service is not available from a supermarket shelve''.

Trusted Trader is another flagship scheme set up by and run by Derbyshire County Council Trading Standards to promote the many honest, reliable local businesses and professional sole trades we have working in Derbyshire and ensure customers buy with confidence.

Being a Trusted Trader sends a clear message that you run a fair and reliable business committed to doing a good job at a fair price and gives potential customers confidence to contact you.

Trusted Trader (opens in a new window) is only for businesses that trade in Derbyshire, but can be registered elsewhere as long as 50% of their business is delivered to Derbyshire consumers.

All our Trusted Traders benefit from free advertising about the scheme to potential customers through the county councils publications schemes, including the popular Derbyshire Gold, and Business First magazines.

Access to Trusted Traders is always available on the county council’s website which has more than 120,000 visitors each month. http://derbyshire.gov.uk/trustedtrader (opens in a new window)

Trading Standards falls under my cabinet portfolio responsibility and following growing concerns about rouge mobility companies targeting our frail and elderly residents, alongside my Trading Standards team tracking down and bringing successful court action resulting in fines and imprisonment, I have worked with my team, and developed this service from a few hundred traders in 2009 to over 1300 today to become the largest scheme of its kind in England.

Whilst other Trading Standards services are being cut, with some near to home as in Derby City Council, I remain committed to improving local life, supporting business, helping consumers, and tackling unfair and unsafe trading practices.

Apart from holding rouge traders to account, bringing successful prosecutions and securing prison for the worst practices, other areas where my team has delivered good results include reducing salt and sugar with support from local butchers and bakers during our ‘Better Bread and Better Bangers’ campaign; Recovery from the proceeds of crime act, from Consumer Credit firms charging excessive interest rates and through Consumer Direct putting that money back into benefiting local communities.

I won’t pretend that Trading Standards like all services are not affected by the council’s budget, and the savings earmarked by the service could affect our ability to continue delivering some of these services, so I have set a strategy to make Trading Standards a Net contributor and no longer reliant upon council budgets which will see the services sustained by 2015 so that supporting responsible businesses and protecting consumers remains part of Derbyshire County Council.