Scottish Food Advisory Committee – 9 April 2013

The meeting was chaired by Jim Wildgoose. Charles Milne, Director of FSA in Scotland opened by introducing the subject of Horsemeat Incident.

On 23rd January there was a requested audit of 228 establishments. this to be carried out by by 4 March and involved looking at processes, practices, controls and authenticity.

DS asked if the FSA changed any of their criteria when it comes to approved premises
inspections in the wake of the horsemeat incident?
Charles Milne replied stating that the frequency of visits will increase and there will be more unannounced as opposed to announced visits. Yes looking at different things because lessons have been learned and now much more focused on authenticity. Expect further changes in the future.

On 19 February two expert groups including the Scudamore Panel were set up to draw lessons from the incident. Sampling to date of 5430 results of which 20 products included horse DNA. These are now on to quarterly surveillance.
Stirling Council and City of Edinburgh Council were involved with 224 of these samples. 217 negative for horse DNA, 5 awaiting further investigation. 140 more samples were taken in the public sector and are now completed. Then as part of an EU requirement a further 150 samples, 12 in Scotland in Highland and Dundee. In addition Local Authorities are also taking a great many more ad hoc samples.
No food safety issues have been unveiled but food standards have been breached with 25 products above 1% horse DNA. These were required to be withdrawn. Even some products with traces of horsemeat below 1% results have been withdrawn by retailers.
Limit of testing is currently 1% but FSA will consider at what level crossover can be expected as a norm. Testing methodologies are improving with some thinking that accuracy to 0.1% would be possible.

Three considerations are now FSA priority:-
1. Testing consumer opinion, concern lamb contaminated with beef rather than lamb with horse but then also faith groups have a requirement, work is ongoing.
2. Future authenticity surveillance is being reviewed. Now issues around fish authenticity.
3. What do we do with public procurement?

This was EU wide issue, the extent included the vast majority of Member States plus Russia and Switzerland.

At the height of the incident retailers agreed to publish results, and this will continue in the future. A sorting house is being set up to allow anonymous feeding of information to FSA. Chairman stressed that this was extremely important. Charles said that they were working hard on this.

Professor Peter Morgan made a presentation on the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health. Food and health, behaviour and sustainability are now the focus of research. The 100 year old Institute has a staff of 160 and is new a school within the University of Aberdeen.

He discussed the importance of protein in the diet and the relationship between processed meat and colorectal cancer. The risk is mitigated by maintaining carbohydrates in the diet. Carbohydrate can be helpful in reducing body weight. Fibres rather than sugars. EFSA have been unable to support health claims about fibre. Rowett has ongoing studies on this.
Thinks there is a psychological factor involved in dieting to lose weight.
Wholegrain in the diet reduces blood pressure but he rattled through a number of factors that might link nutrition and health before coming to the not surprising conclusion that further research is required.

Heather Peace, Senior Dietary Advisor at FSAS sought views on the work of Scottish Government Still Hungry for Success working group. She wanted to know what stakeholders thought was important. Still Hungry for Success is charged at looking at the nutrition in school meals. Questions arose on the uptake of school meals.
Committee members wanting to note what success might look like and felt that this had not been made clear.

There was a paper on FSA response to UK Government's Growth Duty. Growth is a top priority of the UK Government as it is for us as businesses. View that good regulations encourages growth. This was a dry paper that was no doubt important but of no great interest. This applied to England only since Scotland will soon launch its own Better Regulation bill. Scottish Government seeks sustainable economic growth and FSA is represented on the Better Regulation working group.

FSA Scotland had come under criticism for its lamb in a urinal image on Food Hygiene Information Scheme promotional posters. The issue was more about where you eat rather than what you eat and it was claimed that the promotion had a positive effect on food safety. SFMTA had received no comment from members although the President did agree that this was an extremely disappointing use of the product and was in bad taste that did not have a positive impact on sheep producers at a time that was proving challenging for them.

John Barnes, Head of Local Authority Audit & Liaison reported on Feed Review Implementation Programme.

The Operations Group Quarterly Report revealed much fewer cause for concern (CFC) flags on Scottish approved premises. As at 31/01/13 there were none on CFC status

Charles Milne updated on activities of FSA in Scotland.
Food Hygiene Information Scheme: North and East Ayrshire Councils bring total to 25 Local Authorities on board. This means over 32000 businesses in Scotland (60% ).
Committee asked if there was a firm view of consumer awareness. CM reported that the latest data suggested increasing awareness in Scotland. Young people are using the FHIS app. and the aim is to make the information as acceptable as possible.
Eat Safe Awards now at 997 premises. That is 2% of the food premises in Scotland.
Salt in food – voluntary FSA review due soon. This will give data on content of salt in food that consumers buy. Consumption of salt has not decreased markedly despite industry reducing salt in food. It could be because consumers are actually eating more food.
New UK targets are being reviewed for salt, sugar and fat but Scotland reserves right to set its own targets. FSA are co-authoring publication on healthy food choices that will launch on 16th May.
The recent Food Information Regulation consultation supported FSA views except for the requests for standard symbols for allergen content.
Consumer events were held by FSA in areas of high deprivation.

The meeting also allowed DS good networking opportunities with SFAC and FSA members. Ian McWatt and Charles Milne both spoke to DS, as did Joe Watson of Press & Journal and Christine Fraser of Food Training Scotland.

Next Meeting: June 2013 in Aberdeen