BDA Press Centre
BDA Statement on the Food Standards Agency
21st July 2010
The government has announced it will retain part of the Food Standards Agency. However, it will transfer some responsibilities to government, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley confirmed this week.
The Department of Health will oversee nutrition policy and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will handle food labelling.
The Government says this will leave the FSA to focus on food safety.
BDA Perspective
The British Dietetic Association (BDA), founded in 1936, is the professional association for registered dietitians in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the nation’s largest organisation of food and nutrition professionals in the country.
The Chairman of the BDA, Helen Davidson, commented:
“The BDA recognises and welcomes the valued contribution of the FSA over the last ten years.
“Food and the food industry have an impact on every single person in the UK. We remain committed to working with the new FSA structure, in addition to the new functions of the Department of Health and DEFRA to ensure our professional membership continues to contribute to public health issues at Government level.”
The new structure and associated responsibilities are:
Food Standards Agency
- Retains a clearly defined departmental function focused on its core remit of food safety. This means that, on crucial issues of food safety, the independent advice from FSA experts would be final.
- Retains current responsibility for nutrition and labelling policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Approximately 2,000 staff will remain at the FSA.
Department of Health
- Nutrition policy will be transferred to the Department of Health. This includes front of pack nutrition labelling, such as Guideline Daily Amounts.
- The transfer of nutrition policy into the Department of Health directly contributes to the Government’s plans for public health. In the long-term, bringing policies ‘in house’ will enable better services to be created and clearer information to be given to the public.
- The Department of Health will, as a result, be able to press industry to contribute more on improving the health of the nation. This includes reformulation, and provision of nutrition information in supermarkets and restaurants.
- Approximately 70 policy posts will move to the Department from the FSA.
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
- Country of Origin Labelling will transfer to Defra. This will support delivery of the Government’s commitment to deliver honesty in food labelling and ensure that consumers can be confident about where their food comes from.
- It will also support delivery of one of Defra's top priorities: Ministers’ firm commitment to support and develop British farming and encourage sustainable food production, and promote increased domestic food production.
- Other policy areas that will transfer to Defra include composition policy, which is about agreeing the components and standards for characterising products such as honey, jam, chocolate, ice-cream or meat content of sausages.
- Approximately 25 policy posts will move to Defra from the FSA.