The Agency's Role in Food Safety
4.1 Food safety will be at the heart of the Agency's responsibilities. It will take a strategic view of food safety throughout the food chain and will be in a position to ensure that proper account is taken of the need to protect public health wherever Government action or inaction impinges on the safety of the food supply.
The Food Safety Act 1990
4.2 In Great Britain, the Food Safety Act 1990 prohibits the sale of food which is injurious to health, fails to comply with food safety requirements, is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded or is falsely described. It provides a due diligence defence for a defendant who can demonstrate that he did not cause the offence and had carried out all reasonable checks. The Act also provides for a wide range of regulations to be made in respect of many activities relating to food itself and also to food sources (live animals, growing crops) and contact materials (containers, packaging) so that the interests of consumers are protected and promoted. It provides for emergency control orders. It is proposed that the enabling powers will, after the establishment of the Agency, be used on the basis of the Agency's recommendations and that the subordinate legislation will be drafted by the Agency for Health Ministers.
4.3 Twenty Codes of Practice have been issued under the Food Safety Act to give guidance to food authorities on the execution and enforcement of the Act and Regulations and Orders made under it.
4.4 In Northern Ireland the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 and supporting regulations and codes of practice mirror the Food Safety Act provisions.
Food Safety on the Farm
4.5 It is essential for the Agency to be able to promote food safety throughout the whole of the food chain "from plough to plate". Food safety on the farm is, however, inextricably linked with other aspects of farming practices and policies, and the Government has therefore looked very closely at the existing Departmental responsibilities and legal controls with a view to defining precisely how the Agency's responsibilities should relate to those of other bodies, notably the Agriculture Departments, the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD). The Government considers that to give the Agency operational responsibility for all aspects of farming practices would risk diverting it from its essential aim of protecting public health. Moreover, it would, in practice, pass on to the Agency the same problems of conflicting objectives which have contributed to the decision to separate responsibility for the promotion of safe food from the Agriculture Ministers' responsibility for promoting the interests of the farming industry.
4.6 The Government's proposals are therefore designed to ensure that the Agency can intervene if it needs to where farming practices impact on the safety of food. It would normally achieve its objectives through participating fully and effectively in the formulation and implementation of Government policy on issues relating to farming practices where these impact on the safety of the human food chain. But, in addition, the Government proposes to ensure that the Agency is in a position to take action itself, should it consider it necessary to do so in the interests of protecting public health, if other mechanisms have failed. This action could take the form of directions to local authorities, exercising its own statutory enforcement powers, or recommending to Health Ministers that new subordinate legislation should be introduced under the Food Safety Act 1990.
4.7 The Government proposes to review the provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 and to make any amendments necessary to provide the Agency with comprehensive powers to undertake surveillance and/or introduce control measures at all stages of the food chain, including on the farm. These powers would complement the provisions of other legislation in this area, in particular the Animal Health Act 1981, the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 and the Agriculture Act 1970. The Agency will liaise closely with the Government Departments and other bodies with farm-related responsibilities to ensure that there is no unnecessary duplication of on-farm activities such as surveillance.
4.8 These proposals are consistent with Professor James's recommendation that the Agency's remit should cover the whole food chain, "from plough to plate". The Agency will participate in the management of all the food-related surveillance activities undertaken by Government and other bodies and will be able to initiate its own surveillance if it identifies gaps in the overall programme. Mechanisms are proposed to enable the Agency to help to ensure the effectiveness of the public protection policies of the Agriculture Departments and other bodies with responsibilities for on-farm activities. Most importantly, the Agency will be able itself to take action, for example by controlling the entry of food materials from the farm into the human food chain, if it considers that the actions taken by these other bodies do not provide a sufficient level of protection of public health. It will not, however, be distracted from its essential aims by taking on operational responsibility for policy areas where the primary focus is on matters other than public health (for example, environmental, economic or animal health and husbandry issues).
Surveillance and Control of Pathogens in Live Animals
4.9 Legal powers relevant to the surveillance and control of pathogenic agents in live animals are contained in the Animal Health Act 1981 (as amended), the Food Safety Act 1990 and the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (FEPA). In practice, the Animal Health Act powers have generally been used to introduce public or animal health measures relating to live animals on the farm. For example, there are wide-ranging orders dealing with salmonella and BSE which cover public health as well as animal health requirements. The main on-farm use of the Food Safety Act powers has been in relation to the hygiene of on-farm milk production. The FEPA powers are used to make emergency orders in relation to any type of hazard which poses or may pose a risk to human health through food.
4.10 Hitherto policy on the control throughout the food chain of animal pathogens which may cause disease in humans has been fragmented. Creation of the Agency provides an opportunity to remedy this. The Government intends that the Agency should have a major strategic role in developing and implementing a national policy and strategy on the control of food-borne zoonoses throughout the food chain, working in close cooperation with Agriculture and Health Departments, public health professional bodies and the veterinary profession.
4.11 Food safety is frequently only one among a number of objectives for statutory measures dealing with animal disease. Other public health, animal health and welfare considerations and economic considerations may also be involved. The powers available to Agriculture Ministers under the Animal Health Act will therefore normally be the most effective vehicle for introducing statutory measures relating to live animals on the farm (and will be the only vehicle for dealing with zoonotic diseases which are transmitted through non-food routes). Agriculture Departments will work closely with the Agency in developing policy on on-farm surveillance and control of live animals. In order to facilitate close cooperation and to avoid duplication of on-farm activities:
- a joint Agency/Agriculture Departments Committee will be established to coordinate the surveillance programme; other interested bodies, including the PHLS, would participate in this Committee
- the Agency will be required to consult Agriculture Ministers on the option of using the Animal Health Act powers before recommending to Health Ministers that new measures should be introduced under the Food Safety Act. If the Agriculture Departments were unable or unwilling to use the Animal Health Act powers, the Agency could take the matter forward under the Food Safety Act provisions. Agriculture Departments would not be able to prevent the Agency from taking action.
4.12 BSE provides an illustration of how the arrangements will work in practice. The Agency will work closely with the Agriculture Departments on the control measures which are applied on-farm, and would be able to recommend to Health Ministers that supplementary measures should be introduced under the Food Safety Act if it considered that this was necessary to improve the protection offered to the public. The Agency would be free to publish this advice. Operationally the Agency will be responsible for developing and implementing BSE controls on the human food chain from the slaughterhouse onwards, and Agriculture Ministers will be responsible for the eradication of the disease from the national cattle herd, including controls on rendering plants, and for measures aimed at securing the lifting of the EC ban on exports of British beef.
4.13 The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), which advises Government on all matters relating to BSE and CJD, will advise the Agency in the same way as it currently advises Agriculture and Health Departments on the food safety implications of BSE. The Agency will be consulted on appointments to SEAC and will participate, with MAFF and the Department of Health, in the secretariat.
Animal Feedingstuffs
4.14 Animal feedingstuffs form an important part of the food chain and have implications for the safety and quality of the food which is supplied to the consumer. The Government considers it necessary for the Agency to have powers in relation to animal feedingstuffs in order to exercise effectively its responsibility to safeguard human health across the whole food chain. The composition and safety of animal feeds also has an important impact, however, on animal health and husbandry.
4.15 There is currently a range of legal controls under the Agriculture Act 1970 and the European Communities Act 1972 governing the safety, composition and labelling of animal feedingstuffs. Most of these implement EC Directives. For example, there are controls on additives in feedingstuffs which provide a positive list of substances approved against criteria of safety (for consumers, animals and operators), quality and efficacy; permitted levels of contaminants; rules on the composition and labelling of feedingstuffs, which include a negative list of prohibited ingredients compiled on grounds of protecting human and animal health. There are currently no controls specifically covering the use of genetically modified materials in animal feed, which are considered on a case-by-case basis, though EC proposals are expected shortly.
4.16 Important controls have been put in place under the Animal Health Act 1981 to prohibit the feeding of mammalian protein to ruminants and mammalian meat and bonemeal to any livestock. These are the key controls to prevent the spread of BSE in animals. In addition, there are requirements on the standards to which animal by-products for use in animal feeds must be processed and the microbiological standards which the processed products must meet.
4.17 The Government recognises that animal feedingstuffs is an area where there is both a public health interest and an animal health and husbandry interest. It believes that the creation of the Food Standards Agency offers an opportunity to improve the co-ordination of work on animal feedingstuffs, to ensure that full account is taken of the public health considerations. In 1992, an expert group on animal feedingstuffs chaired by Professor Eric Lamming recommended that an independent advisory committee on animal feedingstuffs should be created to consider those issues relating to animal feed not falling within the remit of other expert advisory committees. This recommendation has not been implemented. The present Government believes that the need for such an advisory committee has now become pressing, particularly in the light of public concerns about the use of genetically modified feed ingredients such as genetically modified maize. It therefore proposes to implement the recommendation of the Lamming Committee to create an independent Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs.
4.18 This Committee would advise on all matters not covered by existing Advisory Committees affecting the safety, quality and efficacy of animal feeds, including the implications for human health: for example the content of animal feedingstuffs; animal nutrition; the assessment of new animal feeds and feeding practices including genetically modified products; and advice on the line to take on negotiating and implementing EC measures. Its membership would include expertise in microbiology, toxicology, veterinary medicine, biotechnology and human health as well as the interests of consumers, and enforcement authorities. The Committee would be appointed jointly by the Agency and Agriculture Ministers, who would share its secretariat.
4.19 The Government proposes that responsibility for animal feedingstuffs matters should be divided between the Agency and Agriculture Departments. The Agency will take the lead on those issues where there are close links with the arrangements for human food, for example:
- the use of genetically modified ingredients in feedingstuffs
- feed additives
- composition and labelling of feedingstuffs
- contaminants in feedingstuffs.
4.20 The Agency will also co-ordinate and audit Local Authority enforcement activities in these areas.
4.21 The Agency will, as proposed in paragraph 4.7 above, have powers to initiate surveillance of animal feedingstuffs. Powers already exist under the Food Safety Act 1990 to respond to any emergency affecting food safety, including problems originating in animal feedingstuffs. The Agency will have responsibility for operating these powers.
4.22 The Agency will need to liaise very closely with Agriculture Departments, which would retain operational responsibilities for controls on the use of mammalian protein in feedingstuffs which are key measures preventing the spread of BSE in animals; and the provisions relating to the use of animal by-products in animal feeds and other animal health measures such as rules for the treatment of swill for feeding to pigs which are designed to control classical swine fever. These measures can most efficiently continue to be operated by the State Veterinary Service, working in close liaison with the Agency. If the Agency believes there are significant gaps in the protection provided to human health by the Agriculture Departments' exercise of these responsibilities, it will be able to make public its views and to make use of its own powers under the Food Safety Act to ensure that any necessary work was undertaken.
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