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A copy of the full White Paper is available on this site. See: The Food Standards Agency: A Force for Change
The White Paper, The Food Standards Agency: A Force for Change, published on 14 January, sets out plans for a new public body which will transform the way in which food safety and standards issues are handled. The Agency will be given the powers it needs to take action across the whole of the food chain. It will work at arms length of Ministers and be free to publish the advice it gives to the Government.
The Agency’s essential aim will be the protection of public health in relation to food. It will be required by law to operate in accordance with clearly defined guiding principles, which are set out below. It will operate openly and transparently, consulting fully with all interested parties.
1.The essential aim of the Agency is the protection of public health in relation to food.
2.The Agency’s assessments of food standards and safety will be unbiased and based on the best available scientific advice, provided by experts invited in their own right to give independent advice.
3.The Agency will make decisions and take action on the basis that:
4.The Agency will strive to ensure that the general public have adequate, clearly presented information in order to allow them to make informed choices. In doing this, the Agency will aim to avoid raising unjustified alarm.
5.The Agency’s decision making processes will be open, transparent and consultative, in order that interested parties, including representatives of the public:
6.Before taking action, the Agency will consult widely, including representatives of those who would be affected, unless the need for urgent action to protect public health makes this impossible.
7.In its decisions and actions, the Agency will aim to achieve clarity and consistency of approach.
8.The Agency’s decisions and actions will take full account of the obligations of the UK under domestic and international law.
9.The Agency will aim for efficiency and economy in delivering an effective operation.
Policy Advice and Legislation
The Agency will be responsible for providing policy advice to Ministers on food safety and standards and aspects of nutrition, for preparing legislation, and for providing the public with information and advice. Health Ministers will make the legislation acting on the Agency’s advice. The Agency will negotiate on behalf of the UK at official level in the EU and internationally.
Research and Surveillance
The Agency will base its policies and decisions on the best available science. It will commission research and surveillance across the full range of its activities. Its annual research budget is expected to be around £25 million, and its surveillance budget around £6 million.
General food law enforcement
Local authorities will remain responsible for day-to-day food law enforcement (except for meat hygiene - see below). The Agency will work with them to encourage consistency in enforcement practice. Discussions between Government and local authority representative organisations on how this should be achieved have already begun.
These discussions will also examine whether new powers should be made available to the Agency to ensure that individual food enforcement authorities meet their responsibilities towards the consumer.
Public information and education
The Agency will work closely with other bodies in providing public information and undertaking health promotion and education activities. The Agency will have its own expert Communications Unit, which will develop a two-way exchange of information with the public at large, consumer organisations, industry, enforcement bodies and the media.
Food Safety on the Farm
Food safety begins on the farm, and the Agency will have a key role there. It will have powers to take action to prevent contaminated food from entering the food chain. It would be able to recommend that Health Ministers introduce additional statutory controls, to complement those put in place by the Agriculture Departments, if it considered this to be necessary in the interest of public health. With these powers as a safeguard, the Agency should normally be able to work with the Agriculture Departments to ensure that they have adequate controls in place where farming practices potentially affect the safety of food.
Surveillance and Control of Pathogens in Live Animals
The Agency will play a leading role in developing and implementing a national policy to control animal diseases which may be passed through the food chain. A new Committee, formed by the Agency, Agriculture Departments and other interested bodies, including the Public Health Laboratory Service, will co-ordinate this work. The Agency will have powers to carry out its own surveillance, and will have full access to the results of surveillance carried out by Agriculture Departments and PHLS.
Animal Feedingstuffs
Policy responsibility for animal feed will be divided between the Agency and Agriculture Departments, with the Agency taking the lead on certain issues, such as composition of feed, additives and contaminants, which potentially affect the safety of human food.
A new independent committee is to be set up to advise the Agency and Agriculture Departments on all matters relating to animal feed that are not covered by existing advisory bodies, including the implications of feed for human health.
Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines
Lead responsibility for the Pesticides Safety Directorate and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate will remain with MAFF. However, the Agency will make sure that food safety considerations are properly taken into account in the authorisation of pesticides and licensing of veterinary medicines, as well as in general policy in these areas.
It will take a full part in the assessment by the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides and Veterinary Products Committee of applications for the authorisation/licensing of products. The Agency will have the power to carry out its own surveillance for residues of pesticides and veterinary medicines in food.
Food Hygiene
The Agency will advise Ministers on all aspects of food hygiene policy and policy on the microbiological safety of food.
Meat and Milk Hygiene
The Agency will be responsible for licensing fresh meat plants, and for measures to prevent the transmission of the BSE agent through the human food chain. The Agency will take over responsibility for the Meat Hygiene Service, which will retain its existing functions. It will also take responsibility for the dairy hygiene enforcement work carried out by Agriculture Departments in England and Wales.
Food-borne Illness
Local outbreaks will continue to be managed locally. The Agency will support the work of Health Authorities and local authorities in the investigation of food-borne illness, becoming directly involved there an incident extends beyond the local level or where local investigation of an outbreak is not effective. Where food is identified as a source of an outbreak and the scale of the hazard warrants central involvement the Agency will be responsible for managing the Food Hazard Warning System and liaising with the Chief Medical Officers.
The Agency will set standards for good management of investigations. It will co-ordinate and commission food surveillance activity, working with Health and Agriculture Departments, the Public Health Laboratory Service, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health and other agencies.
Novel Foods and Processes (including Genetically Modified foods)
The Agency will assess novel food applications, in accordance with EC legislation, and will develop and implement future policy on the control of novel foods and processes.
It will take over the Agriculture Ministers’ responsibilities for issuing consents for the release of genetically modified organisms intended for food and animal feed, and will be responsible for licensing and inspecting food irradiation facilities.
Food Additives
The Agency will be responsible for all matters concerning food additives and will be able to take any action needed to protect public health if new information about the safety or use of food additives comes to light.
It will monitor the use of food additives and take appropriate steps to ensure that the intake of food additives does not exceed recommended levels, develop improved methods for assessing the safety of food additives and process applications for temporary national authorisations of food additives, as provided for in EC legislation.
Chemical Contaminants in Food
The Agency will take over responsibility for all matters concerning chemical contaminants in food. It will carry out surveys to establish dietary intakes from food and the extent of contamination by specific chemicals, and develop future policy on food contaminants. It will also act as a statutory consultee for Integrated Pollution Control applications, examining these for possible adverse effects on the food chain.
Radiological Safety
The Agency will develop methods for assessing the impact of discharges of radioactive waste and other sources of radioactivity in the food supply, and with the Environment Agency will run a surveillance programme for radioactivity in the food chain. The Environment Agency and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency will be required to consult the Agency on proposed discharge limits in applications for authorisations of discharges. The Agency will be able to call on the advice of the National Radiological Protection Board.
Food Intolerance
The Agency will provide information and advice to the industry, caterers and the public on food intolerance and commission research to improve understanding of the problem. It will seek to negotiate changes to EC labelling rules to inform the public on possible risks from allergens. It will also consider the need for surveillance to assess the prevalence of allergic reactions to foods, including novel foods.
Food Emergencies
The Agency will take a lead in co-ordinating responses with central and local authorities to possible hazards to human health from contaminated food. The Agency will develop plans for responding to emergencies and incidents involving food contamination and participate in exercises simulating major emergencies.
Food Standards
The Agency’s responsibilities will cover the compositional standard of foodstuffs and the labelling of food. It will also undertake surveillance programmes on food authenticity in co- ordination with enforcement authorities to ensure that consumers are not misled.
Nutrition
The Agency will provide authoritative and unbiased information to help people to decide for themselves what they wish to eat. It will be responsible for providing authoritative advice about the nutrient content of foods and the diet as a whole. It will provide the definition of a balanced diet for use in health education material. Where appropriate, it will propose legislation relating to nutritional aspects of food, such as labelling, health claims, and dietary supplements sold as food.
The Agency will work together with Health Departments in defining the health education message on nutritional issues and in developing policy advice to Ministers. Health Departments will remain responsible for health issues where nutrition is one of a number of risk factors, such as obesity.
The Agency will be a single public body comprising a Commission of no more than twelve independent members, who will be responsible for all the operations of the Agency and supported by a substantial executive staff headed by a chief executive. The Commissioners will provide a broad balance of relevant skills and experience and will act collectively rather than representing specific sectors. A majority will, however, be drawn from a wider public interest background.
The Commission will take expert advice from the independent advisory committees that deal with food and, as a general rule, will consult widely with all interested groups before taking action.
The staff of the Agency will be civil servants.
The UK Commission will include members who have special responsibility for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish interests in addition to providing skills or experience in areas which are relevant to the Agency’s national role.
Three new advisory committees will be set up in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to advise the UK Commission on food standards and safety matters as they affect these parts of the UK. They will be chaired by Commissioners with special responsibility for the interests of the country concerned.
Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Executives will be established, each reporting to the Chief Executive of the UK Agency. These Executives will take over responsibility for the existing work on food carried out by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Offices, operating within the overarching policy framework established by the UK Agency. They will advise the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (or their successors under Devolution) on the implications for those countries of the Agency’s decisions and recommendations, taking account of advice from the new Advisory Committees as appropriate.
The precise costs of the Agency will depend on decisions taken following consultation on the White Paper and on how it decides to carry out its responsibilities. Its annual expenditure is estimated to be in excess of £100 million, part of which will continue to be recovered through charges to industry.
The central Government financial provision for the activities to be carried out by the Agency will transfer along with the responsibility for the work.
The Government intends to shift the burden of the cost of food safety work from the taxpayer to the industry. It therefore intends to develop proposals for a fee-based registration or licensing scheme for food businesses which would cover the costs associated with the Agency, including the cost of any new or enhanced activity. The scheme will be developed in consultation with all interested parties, including Local Authority and food industry representatives.
The period of public consultation on the White Paper will end on 16 March. Responses to the White Paper will influence the drafting of a Bill, which will be published for a further round of consultation during 1998. The Bill will be introduced in Parliament as soon as time permits. This will not be before the 1998/99 session, and the Agency will therefore not be launched until late 1999 at the earliest.
Published by the Department of Health