The Elliott report on food integrity and assurance of food supply networks was commissioned in the wake of the horsemeat scandal and has now been published. Professor Elliott’s recommendations are:
- giving top priority to the needs of consumers in relation to food safety and food crime prevention, including through targeted testing, intelligence gathering and surveys.
- a zero tolerance approach to food fraud including by the development of whistle blowing and reporting of food crime.
- a shared focus by government and industry on intelligence gathering and sharing.
- improving laboratory testing capacity and capability to ensure a standardised approach for testing for food authenticity.
- introducing new unannounced audit checks by the food industry to protect businesses and their customers.
- government support for the integrity and assurance of food supply networks through the creation of a National Food Safety and Food Crime Committee.
- leadership and coordination of effective investigations through the creation of a new Food Crime Unit.
- ensuring mechanisms are in place for serious food safety and/or food crime incident management by implementing the recommendations of the Troop report
DEFRA accepts the recommendations
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has responded to the publication of the report by accepting all the recommendations, including the establishment of a new Food Crime Unit, which the Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said would strengthen consumer confidence in Britain’s high quality food.
Speaking as the government published its full response to Professor Elliott’s report, Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said:
“We’re taking action to make sure that families can have absolute confidence in the food that they buy. When a shopper picks something up from a supermarket shelf it should be exactly what it says on the label, and we’ll crack down on food fraudsters trying to con British consumers.
“As well as keeping up confidence here, we need to protect the great reputation of our food abroad. We’ve been opening up even more export markets, which will grow our economy, provide jobs, and support the government’s long-term economic plan.”
Further government action
The government has taken further action to make sure consumers know where their food is coming from and ensure consumer confidence through:
- improved labelling including new country of origin labelling introduced from April 2015.
- making it easier for food procurers to make decisions about the locality, authenticity and traceability of their food.
The government has also taken action to empower consumers to understand where their food comes from through:
- improving public procurement of food and catering services to provide schools and hospitals with high quality British food and boost UK farming.
- improving food education in schools through a new national curriculum to give children a better understanding of where their food comes from and why it is important to know what is in our food.
Food and drink is our largest manufacturing industry and the integrity of the food supply chains is important for the credibility of our exports, our domestic economy and consumers. The government and industry have taken action to improve our reputation through:
- expanding trade internationally through the Export Action Plan, opening up new markets in China and the US and increasing exports of UK food and drink by 6.8% since 2010.
- robust testing of meat by industry and government with over 50,000 tests carried out – all of them showing that horsemeat was not present.
ALMR: food security action should bring clarity to the sector
Responding to the Government’s response to Professor Elliot’s report into food integrity, the ALMR has welcomed the new measures and called on the Government to continue working with food businesses to improve and clarify food security.
ALMR Strategic Affairs Director, Kate Nicholls said: “The steps being proposed by the Government should give food businesses in the UK, not least in the licensed hospitality sector, greater confidence and certainty in the information they receive from their suppliers so that we can reassure our customers. Incidents of fraud such as the recent horsemeat scandal are very rare but have affected consumer confidence and pubs and restaurants are just as much the victim when faulty or illegal goods are present in the supply chain.
“We have worked with the Government to highlight the importance of food security and stressed the need to maintain high standards without overburdening business. We are therefore pleased to see the Government acknowledging, not just the importance of transparency in this sector, but what a vital sector it is.
“The Government’s response notes the benefits of the Primary Authority Partnership Scheme in underpinning industry best practice and we will be working to secure assured advice on supply chain auditing on which our members can rely.”
BHA welcomes the findings
John Dyson, Food and Technical Expert at the British Hospitality Association said: “We welcome the findings of the Elliott Review into the integrity and assurance of food supply networks, commissioned by the Departments of Health, and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which we believe will contribute to improving controls in the supply chain.
“The BHA will work with DEFRA and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to provide guidance to food service businesses, and as a member of the FSA emerging risks consultative group we have played our part in the discussions on the setting up of a new intelligence hub to improve the sharing of intelligence between Industry and the Government. We also welcome the recognition that supply chain controls need co-ordination not only in the UK but across Europe. Since the horsemeat incident our members have reviewed their testing programmes and taken action where possible to shorten their supply chains.”