FSA Welcomes National Audit Office Report

12 Jun 2019 02:27 PM

The Food Standards Agency Chief Executive Jason Feeney yesterday welcomed the National Audit Office report ‘Ensuring food safety and standards’.

The report has made the following recommendations for the FSA. That we should:

In addition, the report says that:

Jason Feeney yesterday said:

'This is a thorough and detailed report into the effectiveness of the current regulatory arrangements to ensure food is safe and is what it says it is.

'The recommendations in the report make good sense and I am pleased that we are already taking steps to address the proposals aimed specifically at us in the report. In particular we acknowledge that our sampling strategy needs to include an assessment of the amount of and approach to sampling that will ensure consumer confidence. As recommended we are also pressing ahead with developing indicators to assess local authority performance and to ensure our Food Crime Unit is effective.

'We’re delighted that the NAO supports our aim to introduce mandatory display of hygiene ratings in food businesses in England, and we are making firm plans to provide our Food Crime Unit with the powers it needs to work independently.

'As also recommended in the report, we will work very closely with other parts of government to determine the level of government funding required to ensure food safety and standards, and post EU Exit, will evaluate with other government departments the medium and longer-term impacts on the food regulation system.'