UK – The Food Standard Agency (FSA) and Food Standard Scotland (FSS) have published their 2024 Food Crime Strategic Assessment highlighting that there has been a substantial rise in local authority reporting of a broad spectrum of illicit imports, both of animal and non-animal origin.
The Agencies, in the publication revealed that with non-compliant alcohol, confectionery, soft drinks and meat products identified on sale in UK convenience stores.
Noted issues include non-compliant labelling (including around allergens) and also non-permitted ingredients featuring within products. Responding to these issues, which have implications for food safety, places more demand on local authority resources.
Illicit imports of pork products are a continuing threat to UK animal health and the viability of the pig sector when arriving from regions where controls on the export of meat are in place to prevent the spread of African Swine Fever.
“Intelligence now indicates that it is highly likely that methods of importation are evolving to include document fraud and false health marks to evade controls,” the assessment said.
The Food Standards Agency was established in April 2000, in response to a series of high-profile, food-borne illness outbreaks and deaths, including mad cow disease.
Under a proposal revealed by The Grocer, the agency has laid out plans that would strip cash-strapped local authorities of control over food safety and hand it over to large businesses, including supermarkets, manufacturers and major out-of-home chains.
The aim is to allow food hygiene inspectors to concentrate their ever-dwindling resources on smaller “rogue operators”.
Meanwhile, the agency would take direct control over food safety, including hygiene and food standards, for large companies across retail, manufacturing and the food to go sector.
The initial phase involves supermarkets sharing third-party data used to assess their food hygiene performance. This setup has been tested with data from Aldi, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) believes that supermarket data provides better insights into adherence to food safety regulations compared to outdated local authority systems.
However, the FSA’s plans go beyond this. They aim to extend the new national regulatory framework to include large companies in other industries, such as food manufacturing and food retail.
Additionally, the FSA intends to incorporate food standards regulations, which address issues like food composition and allergen protection.
The FSA acknowledges that implementing these changes will involve significant regulatory adjustments. While they expect to launch the new supermarket regulations this year, broader changes to food laws and potential secondary legislation could take a few more years to develop.
