A new Food Standards Agency report describes how it is changing the way it regulates our food supply -- which may sound arcane and specialist, but will affect everything we eat. And some observers are already worried.
Regulating our future' may sound ominous, but happily this report is confined to the worthwhile but overlooked activities of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which prescribes and monitors many of the rules that determine the safety of our food supply.
A while ago, the FSA decided that it needed to update its whole approach to this vital task, to adapt to a highly industrialised, consolidated and global food system, in which many other entities -- such as food corporations and standard-setting bodies (like the Marine Stewardship Council, MSC) -- also set rules and carry out inspections. The FSA felt its one-size-fits-all approach was too rigid, and there was a lot of duplication. So it set about rethinking its practices and while it was busy Brexit happened, which meant the FSA had to adapt its plans to meet the huge new responsibilities it will face when the UK is no longer part of the EU regulatory regime.
The new publication lays out the results: a framework for a 'flexible and responsive' regulatory system in which the food industry (supposedly) does the heavy lifting and pays the bills, underpinned by vigilance from the FSA, which guards the guards, as it were.
Needless to say, the proposals have already attracted criticism, from observers who say the new rules pander to corporations, allow the companies to police themselves and could dilute regulation to the point where consumers are endangered (see warnings from Sustain member Unison here). Who ever said regulation was boring? Read Regulating our Future here.
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Published Friday 21 July 2017
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
