Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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FSA Enforcement Letter (PLGEN24032), 20 May 2024
Summary: To share the first iteration of the FSA’s National Food Standards priorities (NFSP) and encourage local authorities to consider these in the context of food standards controls. And to share the 2024-25 National Enforcement priorities for the delivery of official controls in England and Wales for feed law enforcement (at all stages of production) and food hygiene law enforcement at the level of primary production. These priorities remain unchanged from 2023-24.
The FSA has today published the first iteration of our National Food Standards Priorities (NFSP) and the National Enforcement Priorities for Animal Feed and Food Hygiene at Primary Production (NEPs) for 2024-25.
National Food Standards Priorities:
The publication of the NFSP is an important development as we progress with the implementation of the new Food Standards Delivery Model (FSDM).
One of the key design principles of the new model was to enable local authorities (LAs) to take greater account of intelligence when informing the prioritisation and focus of food standards official controls. The NFSP are intended to support this approach.
The NFSP have been identified through analysis of a range of sources of intelligence. These include IDB (intelligence database) and information as shared in food liaison groups. The priorities are areas of concern in relation to the labelling and composition of foods and are focused on reported non-compliance in relation to food standards requirements. They supplement the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) Control Strategy priorities for 2024/25, which are identified following similar methodology but with necessary focus on actual or potential serious fraud in the food supply chain.
Effective gathering, recording, and sharing of intelligence is essential to inform our understanding of the regional and national risks around food standards and safety, and food crime. We would encourage all local authorities to share relevant intelligence with us either via established systems such as IDB or to email reports of intelligence to foodcrime@food.gov.uk. This will help to inform future iterations of the priorities. We would also suggest that officers consider completing the recently refreshed intelligence eLearning course if they have not already done so. Access to this course can be requested by emailing admin@tssw.org.uk.
Communications and supporting guidance on the food standards delivery model can be accessed via a dedicated resources section on our Smarter Communications platform.
National Enforcement Priorities 2024-25 for Animal Feed and Food Hygiene at Primary Production:
The NEPs are developed annually to guide LAs in England and Wales undertaking official controls for feed and official controls for food hygiene at primary production within certain sectors. As discussed with the National Agriculture Panel, the 2024-25 NEPs remain unchanged from 2023-24.
The NEPs are intended to assist LAs in prioritising or focussing their attention at areas of greater concern when conducting official controls. The NEPs should be considered alongside the Feed Law Code of Practice and Food Law Code of Practice and respective practice guidance but do not change the frequency of official controls laid out in the
Feed and Food Law Codes of Practice arrangements for the Feed Delivery Programme.
The two documents are available on this site:
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National Food Standard Priorities for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland A copy of this document is available on this site (click on image) Provided under the Open Government Licence. The original document was accessed from: |
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National Enforcement Priorities for England and Wales: Feed law enforcement and food hygiene law enforcement at primary production A copy of this document is available on this site (click on image) Provided under the Open Government Licence. The original document was accessed from: |
