DEFRA red tape slammed by BRC

The British Retail Consortium has struck out at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for imposing ludicrous and costly red tape on retailers.

DEFRA has recommended that uncooked meat and fish should no longer be classified as food for disposal purposes.

The definition will come in as part of EU regulation at the end of May, and means that unsold items will be classified as animal byproducts and will have to be rendered and incinerated, rather than simply disposed of.

According to the BRC, a retailer left with one packet of unsold sausages on its premises each week could face an annual waste bill of£832.