The Agency's Role in Food Standards and Nutrition
5.1 People need to be given clear and authoritative information about food in order to make informed choices about their own diet. The Agency's proposed responsibilities in the areas of food standards and nutrition will enable it to ensure that this information is provided.
Food Standards
5.2 Food standards encompasses compositional standards, labelling requirements and food authenticity. The legal framework on compositional standards and labelling of foodstuffs is now almost entirely derived from EC legislation.
5.3 The proposal that the Agency should take over responsibility for this important area extends its remit beyond food safety to include matters concerned with food quality, consumer protection and choice. Consumers have a right to be properly informed about the content and compositional quality of the food they purchase, and to be confident that they will not be misled as a result of inadequate, inaccurate or fraudulent information given by producers, manufacturers or retailers. The quality of information provided also has implications for the safety of individual consumers: for example individuals who suffer from severe allergies.
5.4 Compliance with standards of composition and labelling is also important to ensure fair conditions of trade in the Single European Market and the world market for food. Consumers and UK industry may be disadvantaged and choice reduced if inconsistent or over-restrictive standards create barriers to trade. The Agency will therefore need to work closely with industry as well as with consumers in taking forward policy development in this area.
5.5 The Agency will:
- be responsible for policy and legislation on compositional standards of foodstuffs
- be responsible for policy and legislation on the labelling of food at retail and catering level, including for example ingredient listing, nutrition labelling and claims
- undertake surveillance programmes on food authenticity to ensure consumers are not misled, in coordination with enforcement authorities
- play a proactive role in developing EC controls on claims relating to nutrition and health
- develop a close working relationship with the Medicines Control Agency on the borderline between food and medicinal products
- establish close working relationships with DTI on general consumer protection matters, weights and measures legislation and other relevant issues
- advise MAFF on labelling and other food standards issues which arise in the context of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regimes on individual commodities (for example, definition of alcoholic drinks, water content of frozen poultry meat, marketing standards for eggs etc), or other EC requirements, for example measures relating to food marketing.
Nutrition
5.6 The recommendation in the James Report that the Agency should develop policy, issue guidance and propose legislation on the nutritional quality of diets and their effect on public health provoked considerable comment during the consultation exercise. Responses from consumer organisations, academics and public health organisations and professionals were overwhelmingly in favour of including nutrition in the remit of the Agency. Many respondents from the food and farming industries (but not all) considered that the inclusion of nutrition might detract from the Agency's clarity of purpose and effectiveness in improving microbiological and chemical safety standards.
5.7 "Nutrition" is not a single term. It encompasses a wide range of functions from the nutrient content of food to advice about healthy eating. These elements will be assigned between the Agency and the Health Departments on the basis of the following criteria:
- functions relating to the information which the public needs about food will go to the Agency
- public health functions, such as the links between diet and health, will remain with the Department of Health; and
- the interface between the two will be a shared responsibility.
5.8 This means that, while the Agency will provide readily intelligible, scientifically-based advice about the nutritional content of foods, it will not tell people what they should eat. Instead it will concentrate its efforts on its core functions of ensuring the safety of what people eat and providing authoritative and unbiased information to help people decide for themselves what they wish to eat. The Health Departments will retain responsibility for wider public health policy, including behavioural and lifestyle issues where nutrition is an important factor.
5.9 The overlapping functions fall in the area covered by the work of the Advisory Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA), which provides advice to Ministers on the risks associated with people's diets. COMA will therefore be serviced jointly by the Agency and Department of Health. This arrangement will ensure that the Agency is fully involved in COMA's work, and will avoid the risk that the Agency and Health Departments might become regarded as separate sources of advice on what constitutes a healthy diet.
5.10 The area of nutrition has been the subject of vigorous debate since the James Report was published and the Government expects that these proposals will attract detailed comments, in particular on the attribution of responsibility proposed in paragraphs 5.11, 5.12 and 5.13 below. In particular the Government expects that there will continue to be debate on whether the responsibility for definition of a balanced, healthy diet should rest with the Agency, with Health Departments or with the Agency and Health Departments jointly, and will welcome further comments on this issue. It will consider the precise attribution of responsibilities further in the light of the response to this White Paper.
5.11 The Government proposes that the Agency will:
- be responsible for monitoring and surveillance of the nutrient content of food and the nutrient content of the diet
- provide authoritative factual information about the nutrient content of individual foods and advice on the diet as a whole
- secure expert scientific advice on the relationship between diet, nutritional status and health to support the definition of a healthy diet and to inform policy from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA)
- provide the definition of a balanced diet, based on COMA's scientific advice, for subsequent use in health education material produced by other bodies
- where appropriate, propose legislation relating to nutritional aspects of food, including labelling and claims, dietary supplements sold as food, fortified foods and functional foods
- provide practical guidance in relation to nutritional aspects of the food chain, including production and catering
- commission food and diet research appropriate to the functions of the Agency
- represent the UK in international negotiations on issues relating to nutritional aspects of food
- formulate policy and provide advice to Ministers on these issues.
5.12 The Agency will share with Health Departments responsibility for:
- providing the joint secretariat to the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA). (COMA will advise Health Departments and the Agency)
- surveillance of the nutritional status of people
- defining the health education message on nutritional issues, taking account of both food and wider health issues
- policy formulation and advice to Ministers on these issues, for example in relation to Our Healthier Nation, and public health aspects of food fortification.
5.13 Health Departments will retain responsibility for:
- wider public health policy issues including conditions (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis or obesity) where nutritional status is one of a number of risk factors
- consideration of vulnerable groups and inequalities issues
- health education on wider behavioural issues which may include but go beyond nutrition (such as smoking, drinking, physical activity)
- all links with the NHS and health professionals, breastfeeding promotion in the NHS, clinical nutrition and dietetics including hospital catering and nutritional therapy
- dietary supplements which are controlled by the Medicines Act (through the Medicines Control Agency)
- health surveillance of the population
- and international negotiations on health matters.
5.14 Bodies such as the Health Education Authority in England would continue to be used to help in delivering the health education message relating to healthy eating. In Scotland this responsibility (which will be devolved) would remain with the Health Education Board for Scotland. The delivery of health education in Wales will eventually be a matter for the Welsh Assembly. In Northern Ireland, the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland will be expected to work with the Agency on delivering the health education message.
5.15 The Government intends that there will be very close liaison and active collaboration between Health Departments and the Agency across the whole spectrum of nutrition and related public health issues. This close collaboration, together with the proposed joint secretariat for COMA, will ensure that a consistent health message is provided to the public. The Agency may also be able to make useful links with Health Departments' oral health work in its public education activities.
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