Rick Sanderson of Gate to Plate Compliance asks should modern slavery be the price we pay for ‘affordable’ food? He reviews the performance of British food and beverage companies at meeting the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act.

In October 2015 the Modern Slavery Act was passed, the first of its kind in Europe and one of the first in the world to specifically address slavery and trafficking in the 21st century.

The new legislation enhanced support and protection for victims and gave law enforcement the tools they need to target today's slave drivers and ensure perpetrators can be severely punished. Crucially it included provision to encourage businesses to take action to ensure their end‐to‐end supply chains are slavery free.

The legislation initially only applies to those companies headquartered in the UK with a turnover in excess of £36m. This threshold was chosen as an assessment of those businesses with enough significance of spend to influence their supply chain and the ability to cascade the intentions of the Act. As a bare minimum, the Act requires companies to produce a statement of how they are ensuring that their supply chain is slavery free.

门到门合规部的里克·桑德森（Rick Sanderson）提出，现代奴隶制应该成为我们为“负担得起的”食品付出的代价吗？他回顾了英国食品和饮料公司在满足《现代奴隶制法》要求方面的表现。

2015年10月，通过了《现代奴隶制法》，这是欧洲第一部此类法律，也是世界上首部专门针对21世纪奴隶制和贩运问题的法律之一。

新法规加强了对受害者的支持和保护，并为执法人员提供了针对当今奴隶司机的工具，并确保可以严惩肇事者。最重要的是，它包括鼓励企业采取行动以确保其端到端供应链没有奴隶制的条款。

该法规最初仅适用于总部位于英国且营业额超过3600万英镑的公司。选择此阈值是为了评估那些具有足够支出意义的企业，以影响其供应链，并能够使该法案的意图达到级联。该法案至少要求公司发表声明，说明如何确保其供应链没有奴隶制。