Earlier this month, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) launched, in partnership with EU Member States, the 2024 ‘Safe2Eat’ campaign.  

Formerly known as #EUChooseSafeFood, the campaign aims to build on the awareness-raising efforts of previous editions to trigger critical thinking and promote engagement among Europeans regarding food safety.  

Now in its fourth year, the campaign focuses on three key areas:  

• Safe food practices – European, international and national rules, supported by scientific evidence, ensure food safety from farm to table. Tips for safe food handling, storage, label reading, and cooking are provided, backed by the latest science to empower consumers to make informed choices.  
• Food and your health – Eating a varied diet, including fresh ingredients alongside processed foods, contributes to overall health. Sometimes, foods with extra health benefits or dietary supplements are needed, and the campaign will provide clarity on nutritional needs, health claims and the science behind them.  
• What’s in your food – European regulations ensure the safety of food ingredients, including additives and flavourings.   

The campaign will focus on explaining why food additives and novel foods are safe. Additionally, it will highlight how products containing food allergens must be clearly labelled.  It aims to reach members of the general public, from those with a high level of awareness and little concern about food safety, to those who are highly concerned and less informed.  

More information can be found here  

A new UK wide Food Security Index (UKFSI) 2024, led by Defra, has been published at the recent Farm to Fork Summit which took place in Downing Street on 14th May. 

Working with devolved administrations, the UKFSI gives an assessment of the state of UK food security 2023 to 2024, using the latest available evidence. It is designed to complement the three-yearly UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) which is a comprehensive analysis of statistical data relating to UK food security. The UKFSR 2021 was the basis for government’s assessment that the UK has a high degree of food security due largely to sustained healthy production and positive trends in global output growth.  

The UKFSI measures year-on-year change, building on the UKFSR evidence base but also taking into account wider intelligence and forecasts, and policy developments.  

More detail can be found here 

Ahead of the sixth World Food Safety Day, which this year is to be held on 7th June, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) have published a communications toolkit. 

World Food Safety Day is jointly facilitated by the FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) and aims to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development. 

This year’s theme is ‘Food safety: prepare for the unexpected’ and issues a reminder that food safety is a collective responsibility with everyone from producers to consumers needing to play their part to ensure the food on our plates will be safe.  

More than 600 million people fall ill and 420 000 die every year after eating contaminated food. These illnesses and these deaths are largely preventable if food safety is prioritised along the food chain, from the producer to the consumer. 

The communications toolkit can be downloaded here  

Food Standards Scotland’s (FSS) have recently published their Strategy to 2026 which sets out a vision for a safe, healthy and sustainable food environment that benefits and protects the health and well-being of everyone in Scotland.  

Three of the priority outcomes are that Food is Safe and Authentic, responsible food businesses are able to thrive and FSS is trusted and influential. 

The strategy sets out a framework for the analysis of information and data in relation to food and feed incidents with the aim of identifying effective long term preventative actions. An integral part of this is the sharing of information and learning between FSS, industry and key stakeholders.  

FSS will look to identify potential issues through horizon scanning coupled with identifying common themes, best practice and lessons learned from incidents as well as utilising information and intelligence shared by industry. This strategy will take cognisance of other incident prevention work elsewhere in the UK and around the world to help ensure the furthest reaching data sets feed into FSS analysis and preventative action. 

You can read more here  

A major package of measures to support farmers and grow the UK’s farming and food sector was unveiled at the Farm to Fork Summit hosted by the Prime Minister at Downing Street on 14th May. The Government say that the package will support domestic food production and boost innovation in the sector supporting it to reach its economic potential and recruit the next generation of farming and food leaders.  

It includes a new Blueprint for Growing the UK Fruit and Vegetable Sector, setting out how industry and government can work together to increase domestic production and drive investment into this sector which is worth more than £4 billion to the UK economy. 

The plan involves: 

• Ensuring the sector has access to affordable and sustainable energy and water 
• Cutting planning red tape to make it easier and quicker to build glasshouses 
• New investment to boost innovation in the sector, where Defra will look to double to £80 million the amount of funding given to horticulture businesses when compared to the EU legacy Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme. 

The Summit also saw publication of the first draft Food Security Index, setting out key data and trends to allow government and industry to safeguard the UK’s food security. This will allow the monitoring of short-term trends across the UK. 

In addition, the Government has set out how it will provide further support for farmers affected by the wet weather and there will also be £75 million to support internal drainage boards (IDBs) to accelerate recovery from the winter 2023-24 storms. 

The government has also announced further action to ensure fairness across the food supply chain, committing to delivering regulations to improve fairness in the fresh produce and egg sectors. 

You can read more about the package here  

The Welsh Government have announced that the ‘Mandatory Use of Closed-Circuit Television in Slaughterhouses (Wales) Regulations 2024’ will require CCTV cameras to be installed in all slaughterhouses in areas where live animals are unloaded, kept, handled, stunned, and killed. 

This is a Programme for Government commitment and is included in the Animal Welfare Plan for Wales, which seeks to maintain and improve standards of welfare for all kept animals. 

Most slaughterhouses in Wales already have CCTV.  This requirement ensures all are covered, supporting consumer confidence that welfare standards are being delivered.   

Requirements to install and operate a CCTV system and keep CCTV footage and information will come into force on 1st June 2024. 

This gives a six-month period where the Food Standards Agency will work with slaughterhouse operators to ensure they are compliant with the requirements, ahead of the Regulations being enforced on 1st December. 

A twelve-week public consultation was published on 14 November 2022 and closed for responses on 6 February 2023. A summary of the responses to the consultation was published in May 2023. There were 16,000 responses to the consultation and the overwhelming majority agreed CCTV cameras should be installed in all approved slaughterhouses in Wales. 

The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill, which seeks to end the export of certain animals for fattening and slaughter from and through England, Wales, and Scotland had its third reading in the House of Lords on 14th May.  

This was a chance for members to make any small changes to ensure the eventual law is effective, workable and without loopholes. However, no changes were put forward ahead of this third reading and as both Houses have agreed on the text of the bill, it now awaits the final stage of Royal Assent where it will become an Act of Parliament (law). 

A date for Royal Assent has yet to be scheduled. 

You can watch the session on catch up here: Parliament TV. 

The transcript of the debate can be accessed here: Lords Hansard transcript. 

Further background information can also be found here: House of Lords Library briefing. 

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has recently published the Patterns and Prevalence of Adult Food Allergy (PAFA) report, a large study into the prevalence of food allergies in the adult population in the UK. 

The study involved a community survey undertaken in Manchester and two cohort studies, the Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study (MAAS) and the Isle of Wight 1989. Participants were randomly selected to represent the UK adult population, in terms of age, gender, index of deprivation and ethnicity based on data from the 2011 Census. 

The PAFA project found that more than 30% of adults reported some types of adverse reactions when eating food – meaning they had an illness or trouble when eating a particular food. When this was investigated further through a clinical assessment, it was found that around 6% of the UK adult population are estimated to have a clinically confirmed food allergy. This equates to around 2.4 million adults in the UK.  

The research also found that for UK adults:   

• foods such as peanuts and tree nuts like hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds, are most likely to cause an allergic reaction 
• many individuals also had allergies to fresh fruits such as apple, peach and kiwi fruit. These were associated with allergies to birch pollen, also known as pollen-food allergy syndrome or oral allergy syndrome 
• allergies to foods like milk, fish, shrimp and mussels were uncommon 
• childhood food allergies persist into early adulthood, and then further increase with around half of food allergies developing in later adulthood 

Professor Robin May, Chief Scientific Advisor at the FSA stated “The PAFA report is significant in helping us identify how food allergies evolve between childhood and adulthood, as well as providing vital insights into links between certain types of foods and the persistence of allergies into adulthood.   

Through this research, we can see patterns such as the emergence of plant-based allergies affecting more people into adulthood which is important for us to consider as we’ve seen the food system move towards plant-based diets and alternative proteins.” 

You can download the report in full here