A FLU pandemic could lead to food shortages and panic buying unless the food industry is better prepared, according to an all-party committee of peers.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee gives warning that not enough attention has been paid to the problem of delivery drivers and supermarket staff falling ill.

One witness to the committee’s inquiry, Kevin Hawkins, of the British Retail Consortium, had told the peers that during the 2002 fuel protests “the food supply chain came within a few days of collapse”.

The peers’ report also questions whether the Government’s plan to use stocks of the antiviral drug Tamiflu for treating people with flu makes sense. It might be better, the peers suggest, to use the drug prophylactically to try to limit spread of any pandemic and buy time for a vaccine to be produced.

Lord Broers, who chaired the inquiry, said: “A flu pandemic looks likelier now than at any time since the 1960s.

“The UK has a head start on many countries in flu contingency planning. But the Government could still do better.”

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