Food we can trust: FSA role in pressures on global food system
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The document discusses the pressures facing the global food system and the roles of various actors in ensuring food is safe and trustworthy. It provides an overview of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK, which aims to protect public health and consumer interests related to food. The FSA sees increasing challenges from climate change, population growth, and resource constraints. It argues all parts of the food system must work to ensure safety and transparency. The role of empowered consumers who make informed choices is also emphasized.
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Food we can trust: FSA role in pressures on global food system
- 1. Food we can trust October 2015 Catherine Brown
- 2. © 2015 Food Standards Agency What I will cover • What is the FSA? • Pressures on the food system • Roles and responsibilities – who can do what to help? • The role of transparency and food champions • Q&A
- 3. © 2015 Food Standards Agency What is the FSA? 3 The main objective of the Agency in carrying out its functions is to protect public health from risks which may arise in connection with the consumption of food (including risks caused by the way in which it is produced or supplied) and otherwise to protect the interests of consumers in relation to food. (Section 1: Food Standards Act 1999)
- 4. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Consumers interests… • Food is safe and • what it says it is. • Consumers have access to an affordable healthy diet, now and in the future and • can make informed choices about what to eat.
- 5. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Source - Projected changes in agricultural productivity, Cline, W. R. 2007. Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country. Washington D.C., USA: Peterson Institute
- 6. © 2015 Food Standards Agency 6 Increasing global population also puts pressure on both food production and land • To meet the expected demand for food, it has been estimated that we need to produce 70–100 % more food1 [1] Pretty et al, 2010, ‘The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture’, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
- 7. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Pressures on the global food system… Many factors are likely to have an impact; • Climate change • Growing global population • Changing world economics • Changing nature of UK population • Resources 7
- 9. © 2015 Food Standards Agency 9 Size and resources
- 10. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Who can/should do what? It is the responsibility of people producing and supplying food to ensure it is safe and what it says it is. The Food Standards Agency has a key leadership role in making sure they step up to that responsibility. 10
- 11. © 2015 Food Standards Agency
- 12. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Impacts – awareness of Campylobacter* 19% 35% [June 2014] [May 2015] Source: Campaigns tracker: General perceptions and awareness about food safety Methodology : face-to-face omnibus (June 2014), online omnibus (May 2015) c.2000 people each wave. *Question Example: Please look at the types of food poisoning below; which are you aware of?
- 13. © 2015 Food Standards Agency What is the role of the consumer? “Consumers have responsibilities as well as rights and we want to create an environment in which consumers are encouraged to be active players in creating the best food future possible. We want consumers to be and feel powerful – able to contribute effectively to shaping a food system that protects their interests and respects their rights” 13
- 14. © 2015 Food Standards Agency 14 Size and resources
- 15. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Empowered consumers… • Stop • Think • Choose 15
- 16. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Flight MH370 online “search party” – 1st week : 2.3m participants, 650,000 mapped objects . “crowdsource enforcement”?
- 17. © 2015 Food Standards Agency BFC & food champions The Food Hygiene Rating System A tool for transparency that has supported improved compliance But consumer activism/food champions can take it to the next level As you are doing…
- 18. What’s the impact? Proportion of businesses with food hygiene ratings of 3 or above (FSA tracking data)
- 19. © 2015 Food Standards Agency Thank you – Q&A/Discussion!
Editor's Notes
- Thanks very much for chance to talk to you today
- As we are established by parliament to protect consumers interests in relation to food – need a definition of what they are… Worked with consumers and consumer groups, industry, academics and scientists and came up with this definition So that tells you the essntials about who we are – we are a non ministerial department, set up by parlt to put the consumer first and be a powerful independent advocate for consumers in the system, including exercising some regulatory powers… As part of our strategy review we then reviewed all the available evidence and took the views of a very wide range of people and organisations about the challenges to the food system both now and likely in the future and found v high level of consensus on 5 top level challenges – pressures on the food system
- The first is the effects of climate change – temperature, water, energy constraints Significantly reduce the productivity of the world’s current highly productive areas And increase and change food safety and fraud risks – much more volatility in supply
- And meanwhile the population is growing Which increases demand for food and reduces the space you have to grow it in – specially if you take account of increased pressure for land – for people to live on and for biofuels
- So there are an awful lot of pressures on the food system that threaten its ability to meet consumers needs for access to an affordable, safe healthy diet in the future… These things are not just things that might happen in the future – they are already beginning to happen
- Already see these things having effect So we’ve talked about the stuff I know most about now – what the FSA is, and what we have learnt about the food system and the challenges that face it. Now I am going to touch briefly on what we decided in our strategy review were the roles of different players in the system in trying to deliver food we can trust – which is the aim of our strategy, but one that we know we certainly can’t deliver on our own…
- We have to face the facts that traditional ways of making that happen may not work in the future – local authority and police resources stretched more thinly over a wider range of risks and a more vulnerable population… So we are trying to find ways of making businesses step up to their responsibilities that don’t involve regulatory boots on the ground and a key example of this approach would be our campy campaign. Campylobacter biggest cause of FBD in the UK – 280,000 cases pa, c1% with permanent consequences, some deaths. The top cause of campylobacteriosis in humans is poultry meat. It has been FSAs top priority for a long time but we and industry had been failing to make any impact on the levels of contamination…
- So we decided to reinforce the message about responsibility and also our commitment to openness and giving consumers information about their food supply by carrying out and publishing a survey of campy levels by retailer – a league table. Because retailers have a great deal of power over the supply chain … So we formed a campaign and invited all the retailers, producers, Which and others to join it with the mission of significantly reducing the effect of campylobacter in chickens on human health We carried out the survey and arranged to publish results quarterly And we designed a campaign to also get consumers to adjust their practices in the kitchen to make them safer and reduce the incidence of campylobacter – including stopping them washing their chicken, which just spreads bugs around the kitchen So now we were using the media to push out our messages to consumers, and to supermarkets, not just responding to media demands…
- The effect of our work is being seen in consumer awareness of Campylobacter which is at an all time high and I am very pleased that some big poutlry producers and retailers are now making real headway in reducing contamination levels. And I believe that this is happening because of the transparency that we have introduced to this issue and because we have managed to create some accountability to consumers…
- ensuring that members of the public are kept adequately informed about … matters which the Agency considers significantly affect their capacity to make informed decisions about food
- We need to empower consumers = to create more red resource focused on making sure the food system delivers for the long term interests of consumers rather than privileging shareholder interests which can happen if there is no accountability to consumers… But this is very challenging – consumers feel very small and powerless to influence the system
- There are two levels at which we want to engage and empower consumers The first is just in their individual consumption choices – we say that we want consumers to stop, think and choose And to support this we demand that businesses give them the information to encourage them and enable them to choose We recognise that different things will matter to different people – some will care most about the financial cost of what they are buying and so we would support the work on pricing transparency that Which? do; some will care most about weight management and so we support work to show the calorific content of foods; some will need utter clarity on allergens hence all the work we do on allergen information…
- But beyond those individual choices – to eat less meat, to avoid endangered fish species or seafood with human rights violations in its production chain – there are also opportunities for consumers to influence each other and businesses in wider ways. There are some tools developing that can enable small individuals to engage with big issues and make a difference Some of the work on tuna that greenpeace and others have done for example has enabled consumers to identify food businesses who are breaking their promises to consumers and put pressure on them to step up to the plate… And that is why we have identified the importance of “food champions” in our strategy, and why I am so pleased to be here with you tonight – because the Birm Food council is an example of the kind of organisation that we think can play an important role in advocating for and empowering consumers and creating accountability for food providers…
- I am really delighted that here in Birmingham the Food Council has identified a way of being food champions and community food champions. I am particularly interested in how more empowered consumers can advocate for those who may be less empowered and in this context the project that you have undertaken writing to care homes and nurseries with poor food hygiene practices asking them to improve is absolutely exemplary We will look for more and more ways to put information out there to enable consumers to take power Where’s this from and information for consumers on welfare So we acknowledge an important role that we have to play – but we also honour and encourage the essential role that you and others like you have to play in delivering food we can trust. We have a role in framing a public debate – using our position as a body that is evidence-based and trusted by consumer and industry alike; This allows champions and activist consumers to emerge and coalesce, building demand-side pressure for change and expanding the reach and depth of the debate; The demand-side pressure helps to bring industry and other partners to the table, and we can then work with them to design, develop and deliver tools, including but not limited to information, that help consumers to stop, think and choose.
- And together that delivers benefits for consumers and communities
- So thank you for everything and anything you do as individuals and as supporters of the Birmingham Food Council in terms of stopping, thinking and choosing personally and in terms of raising the key issues relating to food with your communities. The challenges to our food supply are very great and we will only get the best outcomes for consumers and communities by working together I don’t have any more answers than anyone else in the room, but keen to have a discussion with you about what you think the issues are that face the food system and how we can most effectively mobilise all the key players to work to address them and maximise availability of food we can trust