UK Responsibility for Nutrition Policy Transfers to Health Departments

In England, the transfer to Defra of food labelling and food composition policy (where not related to nutrition or food safety) has already taken place.

Oct 1 2010 --- Responsibility for nutrition policy has transfered (October 1) from the Food Standards Agency to the Department of Health in England and to the Welsh Assembly Government in Wales.

These changes will mean that the health departments in these countries will be responsible for:
• nutritional labelling
• nutrition and health claims, dietetic food and food supplements
• calorie information in catering establishments
• reformulation to reduce salt, saturated fat and sugar levels in food and reducing portion size (including in catering)
• nutrition advice, surveys and nutrition research

The Department of Health will also be responsible for supporting the work of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).

In England, the transfer to Defra of food labelling and food composition policy (where not related to nutrition or food safety) has already taken place.

The devolved administrations are considering whether they want to make any other alterations to their current arrangements for food policy.

The FSA will retain responsibility for food safety aspects of labelling. This will cover:
• expert scientific advice on the food safety aspects of date marking
• assessment and labelling of ingredients/foods with food safety implications (e.g. allergens, glycols, high caffeine, high glycyrrhizinic acid)
• food safety aspects of organic food and of foods controlled by compositional standards
• treatments and conditions of use with food safety implications (e.g. quick frozen foods, raw drinking milk and pasteurisation, food contact materials)
• GM and novel foods (including use of nanotechnology)
• animal feed, including Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Animal Feeding
• food safety incidents, including misleading labelling and food fraud with possible food safety implications
• EU General Food Law regulation, including traceability of food and feed
• Codex Committees on Food Hygiene, Methods of Analysis and Sampling, Food Additives, Contaminants in Foods