The Food Standards Agency have given an update (last updated on 25^th May) in response to a small number of concerns raised by people with peanut allergy relating to contaminated soya lecithin, the Food Standards Agency is advising that there is currently no evidence of unsafe food having been placed on the market.

The FSA has been urgently working with businesses and local authorities to investigate the issue and is reassured that evidence provided by industry to date suggests that the incident has been controlled.

Food Standards Agency Head of Incidents, Tina Potter, said:

“Following FSA and Food Standards Scotland guidance, retailers acted quickly and responsibly to carry out their own food safety risk assessments and hold products until they could be sure they were safe.

“All the information we have so far received from businesses indicates that no unsafe food has been placed on the market, and we have received no reports of allergic reactions linked to this issue.

“We will continue to work closely with key partners and industry to establish a clearer picture and will provide further updates should there be any change to our understanding.

“My advice to those with peanut allergy is to continue to closely follow precautionary allergen labelling on products as you normally would and sign up to our allergy alerts so you can be notified in the event that any product recalls are later undertaken.”

It is important that those with peanut allergy take extra care to avoid consuming products labelled with precautionary warnings that they may contain peanut, or may contain nuts, while further investigations are carried out.

The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Chief Executive Emily Miles has responded to the National Audit Office’s latest report ‘Regulating after EU Exit’, which was published on 18^th May 2022.

The report considers three regulators whose work has been significantly affected by EU Exit. The report seeks to draw out common issues to help form regulators and policy departments as they develop regulations after EU Exit, both in the three areas covered and more broadly across government.

They have examined:

• The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) role in regulating food safety and standards;
• The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) role in chemical regulation, in particular the Chemicals Regulation Division;
• The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) roles in enforcing competition and consumer protection law; operating the Office for the Internal Market; and preparing to provide subsidy advice within the UK subsidy control regime.

Responding to the report, FSA Chief Executive Emily Miles says:

“We note the findings in this report, which recognises the significant growth of the FSA’s responsibilities since we left the EU.  We have ensured, at all stages that food remains safe and is what it says it is and this continues to be our top priority.

“Since leaving the EU, we have taken on several new functions. In particular, we are now responsible for the approval of new food products that come on to the UK market. We have an enhanced role in import controls for food entering the country and we have expanded our work to tackle food fraud.

“We no longer have full access to EU data alerts, but we now link with more than 180 countries for food safety notifications, while also receiving third-country notifications from the EU. This ensures we effectively manage food incidents and tackle fraudulent behaviour.

To read the report, click here.

The Global Network Against Food Crises – a body primarily driven by the European Union and United Nations – has published the Global Report on Food Crises 2022.

The report notes that the number of people experiencing crisis-levels of hunger or worse across the globe rose by 40 million in 2021, with 193 million people in 53 countries or territories faced “acute food security”.

The report states that “The outlook for global acute food insecurity in 2022 is expected to deteriorate further relative to 2021. In particular, the unfolding war in Ukraine is likely to exacerbate the already severe 2022 acute food insecurity forecasts included in this report, given that the repercussions of the war on global food, energy and fertilizer prices and supplies have not yet been factored into most country-level projection analyses”.

To read the report, click here.

Due to soaring commodity prices and deteriorating supply chain conditions created by the war in Ukraine, the output growth of UK food and drink manufacturers fell to an eight-month low in March. It’s now becoming very clear just how the war in Ukraine is impacting the supply chain.

It has been estimated that Ukrainian farmers haven’t been able to harvest approximately 20%-30% of their crops and their capacity to plant next years season is limited with a number of constraints. The farmers also have the challenge that agriculture supply chains are complicated to start with as there is only a limited number of windows for planting and harvesting crops. They now also have to consider the fact that processing facilities in Ukraine are closed and the backlog of grain that is yet to be processed will only get bigger. Even if the grain could be processed, it would be stuck within the region due to internal logistics and infrastructure being destroyed, making it harder to transport.

Ling Sin Fai Lam, director of environment, social and governance and sustainability at Shore Capital claimed that the global supply of commodities, such as wheat that are typically transported via the Black Sea using ships, are now going to face further challenges as well. Vessels that are bound for the Black Sea will face an increase in insurance premiums, putting further pressure on prices for the commodity.

Due to the impact climate change is having on our planet, such a rising temperatures, water shortages, wind and fires, the way we farm across the world is changing, which is affecting our supply chain and how we feed our population.

For a more sustainable production, we need to be looking at ways to improve yield, reduce reliance on fertilisers, look at moving to alternative proteins and diversifying grains. However, one of the biggest factors we need to consider is reducing food waste at a household level.

The impact of the war in Ukraine on the food and drink industry has coincided with a 6.7% rise in inflation, the largest since 2011. Karen Betts, Chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, explained that because Ukraine and Russia were important suppliers of commodities, such as wheat and food oils, as well as energy and fertiliser, the current war has made the supply chain situation much worse.

In May, The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation announced their first Natasha Clinical Trial. The trial will focus on children and young people with milk and peanut allergies in our new ground-breaking £2.2m oral immunotherapy trial.

The trial will aim to plug the current Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) research gap by proving that everyday foods instead of expensive pharmaceutical drugs can be used as a practical treatment for food allergy. If it’s successful, it will empower the NHS to provide cost-effective treatments and the more cost-effective they are, the greater the potential to treat more people across the country.

The study will recruit 216 people between the ages of 3 and 23 years. Following an initial 12 months of desensitisation (carried out according to a standardised protocol under strict medical supervision), participants will be monitored for a further 2 years in order to report on longer-term safety and cost-effectiveness. The aim is to bring the level of evidence to a point where OIT using commercially-available foods could be approved for use in the NHS to treat food-allergic patients most at risk of anaphylaxis.

The trial will which will take 3 years to complete, over 5 universities from North to South across the UK and at a cost of £2.2M. It has been funded thanks to a consortium of food businesses’ generous donations and from Natasha’s Army group of supporters.

Initially the trial will focus on milk and peanut allergy, but in the future the aim is for OIT to extend to treating any food allergy, not just allergens named in the EU top 14.

Since their daughter Natasha’s tragic death from an allergic reaction to sesame, Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse have been determined that her death would not be in vain. They believe that medical research holds the key to changing allergic lives and this is a huge mission for their charity. For too long, people with allergies have been told to take all responsibility to remain safe; to ensure 100% avoidance to the foods they are allergic to. They need and deserve so much more.

For more information, click here.