Emergencies task force prepares guidelines

The Incidents Task Force, set up last May by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the wake of the Para Red and Sudan dyes contamination scandal, was expected to be presented as Food Manufacture​ went to press with new guidelines for preventing and responding to such incidents.

To improve response to such events in future, the task force has also set up a scoping group, which will meet when a potentially serious incident occurs. It is also developing guidance for small businesses on food chain controls and using the FSA's food alert short messaging system (SMS) for disseminating information.

The task force claimed that it had made good progress in preventing incidents and improving responses. It was scheduled to discuss progress at a meeting, postponed from December, last Friday. Top of the agenda was the review of the draft incident guidelines document.

Kevin Swoffer, technical director at the task force member the British Retail Consortium, said: "There will be some significant changes to the way the document has been drafted, with more focus on prevention of incidents and more in-depth clarification of processes, both in and outside the FSA, on how to handle incidents when they occur. It is a complex and diverse document and there will be more consultation on this, but this is a very positive move."

The FSA said that since last June it had continued to press the European Commission to introduce an early warning mechanism by including emerging issues on agendas of the Standing Committee on the food chain and animal health to help identify issues before they became incidents.

Worldwide contact points had also been established to share information on emerging chemical safety issues, while data on past incidents had been mapped on to the supply chain to help identify critical control points.

Existing industry standards and assurance schemes were being studied to decide whether any strengthening was necessary. Other tasks included work to agree criteria for classifying incidents and to analyse information on previous incidents.

Meanwhile, the insurance broker and risk management firm Aon warned that six in 10 firms had never tested their business continuity plans.