The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that from September 2023, all primary school children in London will receive free school meals for the next school year.

According to the Mayor of London’s Assembly website , recognising that families are in urgent need of support, Sadiq Khan will provide the funding as an emergency cost of living support measure and ensure that every primary school child in London will get at least one hot, nutritious meal a day during the next academic year 2023-2024.

The introduction of universal free school meals for the 2023/24 academic year could save families around £440 per child and builds on the Mayor’s existing work helping families to cope during the cost of living crisis.

According to The Food Foundation , one in four households with children have experienced food insecurity between September and October 2022, something that affected an estimated four million children in the UK.

The Food Foundation has said that 270,000 pupils will benefit from this decision.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have announced the launch of a new trial in Wolverhampton to encourage healthy eating and exercise.

Backed by £3 million from the government, the aim is to support people to live healthier longer lives while helping to cut waiting lists.

The trial – the first of its kind in England – will see participants given free fitness trackers which will be linked to the Better Health: Rewards app. The free app will generate personalised health goals for every participant – such as increasing their step count or eating more fruit and vegetables – in line with the Chief Medical Officer’s physical activity guidelines and the Eatwell Guide for a healthy balanced diet.

Over 20 weeks, participants will collect points for each goal they complete, which they can exchange for rewards including discounts for cinema tickets, and clothes or food vouchers.

The app also includes budget-friendly tips that support users to develop healthier habits, and challenges have been designed to be completed anywhere, no gym required.

National supermarkets including Sainsburys, ALDI, Morrisons, Tesco and Asda will be participating in the scheme so users can earn money off their food shop. Hundreds of other rewards are also on offer, including vouchers and merchandise from retailers including Amazon, Argos, Primark, M&S, John Lewis and Currys.

Gyms and leisure centres across Wolverhampton including PureGym, Places Leisure, Complexions and WV Active are also offering vouchers and discounts.

The European Commission have recently published their monthly Summary of Articles on Food Fraud and Adulteration covering January 2023.

Retrieved mainly from the JRC tool Medisys (http://medisys.newsbrief.eu), the presentation of articles reflects their media coverage rather than the frequency of food fraud in any one particular country and/or concerning a specific food product.

Amongst other things, this latest summary reports that as a consequence of the Western sanctions, food smuggling has increased between Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast and highlights a large proportion of incidents involving grey market products around the world.

You can access the summary here

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published its Annual Report and accounts for 2021-2022 covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In the report, the Chair of the FSA Professor Susan Jebb, acknowledges the work that was ongoing through the year to manage the impact of COVID-19 and EU Exit, as well as the ongoing work in areas ranging from food hypersensitivity to regulatory reform, and further investment in science and research.

Jebb also states “While we have done well to meet the challenges of the last year, global events are continuing to impact on the food system and put pressure on resources at home. Despite signs of recovery during this reporting period, local authorities are still struggling and will continue to face constraints which could impact on local food teams. Likewise, we remain concerned that without full import controls the less confident we can be about preventing food incidents occurring”.

You can access the report here

In response to local authority feedback and to assist professional development, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), have published top level results from the latest Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) National Consistency Exercise and the reasons and explanations for each of the expected component scores.

This is the seventh FHRS national consistency exercise carried out and asked the Local Authorities in England, Northern Ireland and Wales to assess a scenario based at Northdale Cottage Home Catering, a food business producing individual “ready-meals” which are delivered frozen for reheating by the customer.

Officers were asked to consider the exercise materials provided with the scenario and then:

1. Determine what scores should be awarded for Hygiene, Structure and Confidence in Management
2. Calculate the corresponding Food Hygiene Rating
3. Discuss what, if any, enforcement action is appropriate in accordance with the Food Law Code of Practice and the authority’s enforcement policy.

There are a total of 367 local authorities across the three nations, 343 of which deliver food hygiene services. A total of 319 local authorities submitted a score which equates to a response rate of 93%, slightly higher than last year’s response rate (85%).

The expected outcome of the scenario was a food hygiene rating of ‘3’ with most local authorities giving this score.

You can read the report in more detail here

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has published its responses to the FSA consultations on the proposed changes to the Food Law Code of Practice in England and Northern Ireland.

The FSA consultations, which ran in October 2022, covered proposed changes to the Food Law Code of Practice in England and Northern Ireland which would implement a new food standards delivery model.

The two key proposals were the introduction of a New Food Standards Intervention Rating Scheme and a Decision Matrix, with an overall aim to provide local authorities with greater flexibility to be able to direct their limited resources more proportionately to the highest-risk Food Business Operators (FBOs).

Whilst the CIEH responses welcome the proposals in theory, they also raise a number of concerns, including the fact that the proposals do not address the lack of local authority resources. They also point out that requiring interventions 28 days after identifying high-risk FBOs will place huge resource pressures on local authorities.

You can read the CIEH responses here.