Environmental Health Officers criticise the FSA “Regulating Our Future” (ROF)

Sorry for the lack of updates over the summer.

The Food Standards Agency’s flagship policy “Regulating Our Future” was criticised earlier this year by Environmental Health Officers in a survey.

Below are just some of the comments that were received.

“The reliance on remote auditing of records, food safety management systems and other documents will not give a true picture of risks on the ground at the food outlet.”

The FSA believe that they can use what they call new technologies (computers) in their offices rather than independent inspections at premises to identify food safety problems. It’s just a pity that really new technologies have not been developed to decrease the amount of unhealthy bacterium that are in our foods. (You could argue Chlorination is a new technology, but all it does is mask poor food hygiene practices and does not appear to reduce foodborne illness in countries that it is used in).   

“ROF is by far the worst proposal ever suggested by the FSA. It will create job losses in local authorities as a result of the emergence of private companies set up to deal with the private assurance scheme. It is ill-conceived... and they (FSA) have completely ignored all constructive advice and opposition submitted by experienced front line officers and managers” 

The FSA appear to believe that British Retail Consortium (BRC) auditing and Red Tractor accreditation is better than independent inspections. Both these food industry bodies were involved in the accreditation of a company called 2 Sisters in West Bromwich. The Company was investigated by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee who published their report on 16th November 2017, after the Guardian newspaper and ITN released undercover footage of poor food hygiene practices including “breaches of food safety legislation, including workers altering the slaughter date of poultry thereby extending its “best before” and “use by” dates”.
 
See the link to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report below:
 
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/2-sisters-17-19/
 
“I am sceptical as self- regulation can lead to corruption. Large businesses still fail in health and safety or food safety and when they do it has a bigger impact on more people.”

Food Fraud is a growing problem that the FSA have failed to deal with successfully even after the Horse meat scandal. Why should consumers pay for, in the best-case scenario, inferior substitutes.

Reported cases of compromised safety or integrity of meat products have doubled in the last 6 years.  This and other very interesting information can be found at www.unchecked.uk

The Supermarkets and Restaurants who do this are clearly responsible for what they sell. The National Audit Office mentioned the problem of Food fraud in their report about the FSA of 12thJune 2019, in relation to their lack of legislation to deal with this issue.   

Thank you for your continued help and support.