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Trust but verify - the changing role of food
law enforcement.

• Stuart Musgrove
• Food Law Enforcement Consultant
• stuartmusgrove_at_waitrose.com

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This mornings presentation

• Introduction
• Legislation and practice
• Structure and delivery
• Current situation
• Future enforcement structure
• Conclusions.

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Introduction

• 434 Local Authorities, 2900 professional staff,
  600 support staff
• Responsible for enforcement of most food
  legislation
• From primary production to retail sales, imported
  foods
• Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Public
  Analyst, Health Protection Agency
• LACORS
• Apply a range of official controls
• Regular contact with businesses - over 500,000
  trade checks per year
• Supported by laboratories
• Framework Agreement - contract with the Food
  Standards Agency
• Professional bodies - qualifications.

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Legislation - European

• E U General Food Regulation 178/2002
• Food and animal feed safety, Food presentation,
  Food fraud, Traceability
• Food Control Regulation 882/2004
• Eliminate risk, permit fair trade, protect
  consumer interests
• Definitions, official control tasks, training of
  officials
• Member States shall ensure that official controls
  are carried out regularly, on a risk basis and
  with appropriate frequency......taking account
  of
• identified risks associated with food,
  businesses, processes, activities
• food business operators past record of compliance
• reliability of FBOs own checks
• any information that might indicate
  non-compliance
• Any non-compliance has to be identified, risked
  and appropriate action taken to correct the
  situation.

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Food Control Regulation 882/2004 - Definitions

• Audit
• a systematic and independent examination to
  determine whether activities and related results
  comply with planned arrangements and whether
  these arrangements are implemented effectively
  and are suitable to achieve objectives
• Inspection
• the examination of any aspect of feed, food,
  animal health and animal welfare in order to
  verify that such aspect(s) comply with the legal
  requirements of feed and food law and animal
  health and animal welfare rules
• Local Authority inspections should include an
  audit of food safety systems but then, a more
  detailed scrutiny to confirm compliance with all
  legislation.

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Food Control Regulation 882/2004 - Tasks and
training requirements of the inspectors

• Auditing, sampling, inspection
• Control procedures
• Food and feed law
• Food manufacture and risks involved
• Assessment of non-compliance
• Hazards in food production
• Evaluation of HACCP procedures
• Management systems
• Official certification systems
• Contingency arrangements for emergencies
• Legal proceedings
• Interviewing skills
• Examination of records, including financial and
  commercial aspects
• Any other control area

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Food Law Code of Practice (England)

• Code of Practice - 181 pages
• Qualifications, experience and training
• Enforcement approach
• Interventions (includes Official Controls)
• Risk rating system
• Practice Guidance - 243 pages
• Further detail of operational details
• Mainly concerned with hygiene inspections
• Further operational advice from LACORS.

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Local Authority Enforcement Structures and
Priorities

• County Councils, District Councils, Unitary
  Authorities in England
• Very variable arrangements within Authorities
• Consolidation of Departments in Local Authority
• No longer Chief Officers in Environmental Health
  or Trading Standards
• Less professionals at the strategic /policy
  decision level
• Now usually part of groups that might include eg
  environmental services, highways, fire service.
• Traditionally most Local Authority Departments,
  and many officers enforce many other areas of
  legislation
• health and safety, pest control, stray dogs,
  pollution control, consumer safety, weights and
  measures, infectious disease control, animal
  health and welfare
• Rogers Report March 2007 tried to identify
  national priorities.

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Sifting from over 60 policy areas to six national
priorities
From Determining National Priorities for local
authority enforcement services 2007
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Food law enforcement visits

• Hygiene, food composition, labelling
• Premises
• Primary production ?
• Manufacturing / processing
• Distribution / wholesale 16,000
• Catering
  400,000
• Retail premises 130,000
• Control tasks eg
• Audits including HACCP procedures
• Paperwork check - including Third Party Audits
• Inspection
• Sampling
• Alternative enforcement strategies.

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How effective are enforcement inspections

• Welcomed by most food businesses - free services
• Central Government has been gathering information
  for years
• 2003 reasoned that data supplied not reliable
• New system developed - too soon for detailed
  conclusions
• 2009/10 more inspections, more prosecutions
• Local Authority enforcement departments audited
  by the FSA
• Look into systems in place, what has been done,
  accompanying inspectors new
• Perhaps becoming more critical than earlier
• Pennington Report into South Wales E.coli
  outbreak enquiry tell a different story.

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How consistent are enforcement inspections

• Food Industry is very heterogeneous and also very
  innovative
• Mixed farm, importer of organic herbs, gastropub,
  factory making ready meals, supermarket with
  15000 food lines.
• The knowledge of the law and skills to inspect
  all businesses is vast
• Qualifications, Training, Experience and
  competency
• Assessment of risk, HACCP, labelling, fraud
• Relevant advice for legal compliance
• What percentage of inspection outcomes would be
  really that different ?
• FSA and Local Authorities working on achieving
  consistency of inspections
• Establishment risk rating

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Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species -1859

• it is not the strongest species that survive,
• nor the most intelligent,
• but the ones most responsive to change

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The enforcement role in changing times

• FSA will retain the lead role in England
• But in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ?
• Role of DEFRA and Dept of Health in food policy
  development to increase
• Not forgetting the role of other Government
  Departments
• Primary Authority, Earned immunity, Frequency of
  inspection
• Likely that Local Government will retain a role
  in Food Law enforcement
• Part of the localism agenda
• Delay in FSA review
• FSA will continue to audit local authorities
• Challenge to ensure and effective food control
  role.

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The future role in changing times

• Already in Local Government
• Significant loss of resources, experienced staff,
  sampling budgets
• Recruitment limited, training reduced for staff
  retained
• Priorities being reviewed
• Loss of national co-ordination - LACORS
• For the industry
• Loss of free independent inspections, sampling
  and advice
• Support lost to small growing companies
• Economic development
• New resources to fund food control - charge of
  all inspections?
• Private industry to provide inspection services
• Develop new ways of working
• Wider use of new technology
• Can third party audits play a role?

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Assessing the proportional response
Hard enforcement
Light touch, compliance
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The swinging pendulum
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What does the future hold ?
If you want to get to there, I would not
start from here
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What does the future hold ? - A New Structure.

• Clarify the enforcement role - no advice, no
  support - just enforcement
• Simplify the structure at Government level
• Create a Food Control Agency
• Regional structure and responsibilities
• primary production
• manufacture /processing
• Home and Primary Authority
• Local offices
• retail / catering
• Combine the professional roles - Food Control
  Officers
• Laboratories
• Resources.

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Conclusions

• Explained the legal requirements
• Discussed the structure both at national and
  local level
• Reviewed the changes taking place at present
• Suggested a new regime with clearer lines of
  responsibility
• But for the immediate future
• What can be done with significantly less
  resources
• Concentrate on those businesses that are likely
  to break the law and affect the communities they
  serve
• For the rest, it is rather more trust, and rather
  less verification that is the order of the day.

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• Thanks to the IFST Western Branch for inviting me
  here today.
• stuartmusgrove_at_waitrose.com