UK Government and Industry Welcome Review into Food Supply Networks

13 Dec 2013 --- The UK Food Standards Agency has welcomed the interim report from the Elliott Review. The independent review into the integrity and assurance of food supply networks is being led by Professor Chris Elliott.

The report recognises the high standards of food safety standards in the UK food industry. However, the need for a more coordinated and proactive approach to food crime is the principal theme of the report and Professor Elliott is right to highlight that there is a role for central government, local authorities and the food industry to play in this area.

“We know from the horse meat incident that food supply chains are complex and international. We support the European Commission in its work to establish a European Union food fraud unit, to which the FSA has seconded staff, so we are better able to protect consumers from fraud along the whole food chain across the whole of Europe.”

The FSA is already working with Defra and local authorities to detect and deter food fraud. For example, we are carrying out a study to test that products which are labelled from the UK are in fact from the UK; we have introduced unannounced inspections of meat cutting plants; and we have increased to £2m the funding to local authorities to support their own testing programmes.

Responding to the interim Elliott Review published today, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said: “I am pleased that Professor Elliott’s interim review recognises that there are good systems in place to ensure UK consumers have access to some of the safest food in the world. We want to keep it that way.”

“It is appalling that anyone was able to defraud the public by passing off horsemeat as beef. That is why I commissioned an urgent review into the integrity of our food network.”

“The UK food industry already has robust procedures to ensure they deliver high quality food to consumers and food businesses have a legal duty to uphold the integrity of food they sell. It is rightly highly regarded across the world and we must not let anything undermine this or the confidence of consumers in the integrity of their food.”

“We will continue to work closely with the food industry, enforcement agencies and across local and central Government to improve intelligence on food fraud and our response to it.”

Significant action is already being taken to prevent and identify food crime, including:
•unannounced inspections of meat cutting plants have increased, with 1,450 having taken place since January this year
•the food industry undertakes a rigorous testing programme to ensure food authenticity. For horsemeat alone, the results of 31,000 tests have been reported to the Food Standards Agency
•the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is undertaking a study to test that products which are labelled as being from the UK are, in fact, from the UK
•the government has increased funding to £2 million to support local authorities’ coordinated programme of food sampling
•the Food Standards Agency will lead further testing of beef products for horsemeat
•the Food Standards Agency is working with the European Commission (DG SANCO) and other Member States to establish an EU wide food fraud unit
•the Food Standards Agency is working with industry and the European Commission to identify further targeted sampling programmes and how they might be implemented
•the Food Standards Agency is developing a new Intelligence Hub to improve its capability to identify, and prevent, threats to food safety and integrity that are identified by expert analysis based on the approach to intelligence used by police

The interim report will now be considered ahead of Professor’s final report due to be published next year.

Responding to the Review conducted by Professor Elliott into the integrity and assurance of food supply networks, FDF Director General Melanie Leech said: “It's clear from the interim findings published today that UK consumers have access to perhaps the safest food in the world. Professor Elliott's recommendations provide industry with a solid platform from which to build a joint strategy with government and enforcement bodies to combat food fraud.”

“We have developed a plan of action to help manufacturers protect their business and customers. Building on FDF's sustainable sourcing work we have produced a best practice guide, 'Food Authenticity: Five steps to help protect your business from food fraud' focussed on the robustness, resilience and sustainability of supply chains. Additionally through our network of committees and working groups we are constantly engaged with members on incident prevention and horizon scanning for emerging issues. Furthermore we continue to maintain an open dialogue with UK and European regulators to ensure that manufacturers can access relevant information with regard to threats to the authenticity of food supply.”