Nothing is safe from the eagle eye of government cuts and taking centre stage this week is the Food Standards Agency. Although the Department of Health is yet to announce whether the rumours are true, we may soon be living in a country with no single entity maintaining the standards of what we eat.
Cutting a body such as the Food Standards Agency does not have to be a catastrophe for the UK, as long as its safeguarding role is preserved and a viable alternative is presented. Saving money is something that we are all striving to achieve, and while it may be that some organisations need to be axed, this should not be to the detriment of the public’s welfare.
It is suggested that the FSA will be split into two: the regulatory aspects will fall under the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the nutrition and public health aspects will fall under the Department of Health. This seems to be counter productive – by dividing an adequate organisation in two, aspects of food quality will fall between. Food safety and healthy food are two parts of the same orange and, given that obesity is a growing global concern, the two are inextricably linked.
Health groups are claiming that the health secretary is bowing to pressure from big businesses, allowing them a more permissive environment to sell food that is considered unhealthy and bad for the nation. Whether this is the case or not, standards will certainly be harder to maintain without a single body working to maintain our health.
The FSA was established in 2000 after a series of food scares and deaths from food-borne illnesses throughout the UK, such as the BSE crisis. Since then it has achieved a number of successes, including improved food labelling on processed food and, according to Defra, public trust in food safety has risen significantly. Also, in 2007 there were an estimated 23% fewer cases of salmonella than in 2000.
Compare this to the US where the approach to food quality is more fragmented. Food safety scares are much more commonly in the news, from salmonella in tomatoes to E.coli in bison meat. According to a poll by Deloitte Consulting, 76% of Americans are more concerned about food safety than five years ago.
Given these statistics, should we really be axing a department that has made a lot of headway? To be convinced that scrapping the FSA is a good idea and that the UK can continue to maintain its high standards of food quality, we need to be presented with a clear rationale and an alternative that will work.
By Simon Feary, CQI CEO
14 July 2010
One Comment
“Compare this to the US where the approach to food quality is more fragmented”
I always thought the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration – FDA http://www.fda.gov/ ) dealt with such matters at a federal level.
Is that not so?