The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have launched a major review of the UK system.

The inaugural annual report Our Food: An annual review of food standards across the UK comes after the food system has faced two-years of major upheaval following the UK’s departure from the EU, the significant effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and more recently the disruption caused by the war in Ukraine.

The report concludes that food standards in the UK have largely been maintained, despite the significant pressures. However, while there has been no evidence of a drop in standards, the report warns of challenges ahead.

Two of the main concerns to come from the report is the fall in the number of inspections of food businesses as a consequence of the resourcing pressures faced by local authorities. Also, the delay in establishing full UK import controls for high-risk food and feed from the EU, has reduced the ability to prevent the entry of unsafe food into the UK market.

There are a growing number of concerns that the government’s seasonal worker visa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to abuse by criminals, which leads to labour exploitation across the supply chain.

“There is infiltration into recruitment at various levels by third parties who are not involved [in the process] at all,” said David Camp, CEO of the Association of Labour Providers. “They have no connection to any recruiter, but they advertise as if they do, and they take money from individuals.”

Camp added that these third parties typically offered training courses and help with job application admin for a fee. However, such services were “complete shams where they don’t do anything, they just take the money”, he claimed.

Kate Roberts, head of policy at research organisation Focus on Labour Exploitation, said “We had been concerned there are risks of exploitation in the scheme generally but also, with the expansion of the scheme, [there had been] an increase in people being charged illegal recruitment fees”

The UK has previously recruited the majority of seasonal labour workers from Ukraine, but due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, recruitment companies gave had to rapidly expand into new markets in Asia.

FSA chair, Professor Susan Jebb, said: “This first joint report reflects on a period during which there has been significant concern about the impact of world events on food standards and safety.

It is encouraging for UK consumers and our international trading partners that this report provides reassurance that the high food standards we enjoy in the UK have been upheld during a really tough period for the food system. However, the effects of recent momentous events are still being felt and will continue to have an impact on our food systems for many years to come”.

 

There are a growing number of concerns that the government’s seasonal worker visa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to abuse by criminals, which leads to labour exploitation across the supply chain.

“There is infiltration into recruitment at various levels by third parties who are not involved [in the process] at all,” said David Camp, CEO of the Association of Labour Providers. “They have no connection to any recruiter, but they advertise as if they do, and they take money from individuals.”

Camp added that these third parties typically offered training courses and help with job application admin for a fee. However, such services were “complete shams where they don’t do anything, they just take the money”, he claimed.

Kate Roberts, head of policy at research organisation Focus on Labour Exploitation, said “We had been concerned there are risks of exploitation in the scheme generally but also, with the expansion of the scheme, [there had been] an increase in people being charged illegal recruitment fees”

The UK has previously recruited the majority of seasonal labour workers from Ukraine, but due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, recruitment companies gave had to rapidly expand into new markets in Asia.

Roberts also added that “the UK’s labour enforcement agencies are not resourced to cover this significant expansion. Previously, when the scheme was operating from fewer countries, it was more feasible for them to put agreements in place”,

A recent investigation by The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that some workers were paying thousands of pounds extra to overseas agents to secure UK seasonal worker visas.

There is now work being done to improve the conditions for seasonal workers. With supermarkets, scheme operators, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and the ALP (among others) launching the Just Good Work app, it provides advice and guidance for workers in their native language In a bid to increase transparency in the recruitment and employment process.

To increase consumers levels of confidence in prepacked and non-prepacked items, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), is looking to improve food hypersensitivity (FHS) labelling. The agency plans to introduce a more standardised approach for precautionary allergen labelling (PAL), offering more support for businesses to apply PAL when necessary and improving allergen cross contamination risk management.

At the recent FSA quarterly board meeting, a paper presented to the board found most people with FHS wanted to see more standardisation in menu labelling, this was broadly supported by the board.

Concerns were raised regarding the pressure this would put on businesses to deliver on this standardisation, which has led to the FSA board committing to do more work on how they can deliver the changes and provide the support that food businesses would require. The board added into the report that they would look to learn from the Irish system, where allergen labelling is already more uniformly applied.

The board paper focused on three key themes: the importance of clear, consistent and accurate information about allergens, the challenge of finding solutions which can be implanted effectively and safely across different types of business; and the FSA’s decision not to recommend legislation changes at this point in time.

A key point of concern for board members was the lack of focus on including written allergen information on menus. The report had recommended that “proactively asking consumers about allergies is best practice” despite FSA research finding that “written information supported by verbal communication” is most trusted by those with food hypersensitivity.

But board members suggested not having rules on written information could lead to mistakes made by staff and was therefore too reliant on consistent staff training, which could be difficult to ensure considering the high rates of staff turnover in the food industry.

In response to these concerns, FSA chair Susan Jebb said the FSA would carry out further research into the pros and cons of written information on menus. She said that while potentially beneficial to consumers, it came with a huge burden for businesses. She also raised that it could also lead to inaccuracies and inconsistencies in even the “best-run kitchens”.

The report also outlines plans to provide an online structured training programme for staff through the food industry to improve their behaviour and knowledge of allergens by December 2025.