Fran McCloskey, CIEH chief executive, said: “Environmental health professionals are the unsung heroes of public health – they are our first line of defence against foodborne illnesses, and work with wider businesses, organisations and policy makers to ensure the UK’s food safety.
“The recent E.coli outbreak underscores the crucial need to address the wider problems across the UK’s food system, including the recruitment and retention crisis facing environmental health teams in local authorities.
“The CIEH continues to call upon the Government to take urgent action to address the workforce shortages and capacity challenges facing our profession to strengthen environmental health’s ability to review and prevent future outbreaks.”
The call also follows recent BBC findings connecting food-poisoning outbreaks to delays in local authority food hygiene inspections.
McCloskey also urged sufficient, ringfenced funding for apprentices and trainees to help ensure the UK had a sustainable profession that could adequately protect public health.