Industry fears new recall rules will spark confusion and alarm

Manufacturers and retailers could be on a collision course with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) unless agreement can be reached on product recalls under the European Union general food laws which took effect this year.

The clash is over interpretation of Article 19 of the new rules, which governs the circumstances under which a recall becomes necessary and when the "competent authorities" must be informed.

Some experts fear the absence of definitive conditions under which products are considered unsafe could result in widespread confusion and unnecessary consumer alarm.

"You could have a situation where the more diligent companies notify the FSA of issues that they may have in grey areas, whereas less diligent companies -- because their systems are less sophisticated or robust -- would seem to be doing everything right because there are no notifications," said Kevin Swoffer, head of technical services at the British Retail Consortium (BRC). "There could be a perception that the better companies were the worst."

Representatives of the industry, including the BRC and the Food and Drink Federation, and the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors) have been trying to iron out the problem with the FSA, which is about to start a three-month consultation on operational guidelines.

The industry claimed that the FSA was pushing for tighter controls than those called for by Europe, to the disadvantage of the UK. "The last thing we want is for case law to dictate what the interpretation is," said Swoffer.

Fears about unnecessarily frightening consumers with escalating recalls because of manufacturers' limited experience, led the BRC to produce a simple risk-based "decision tree" in 2003. The FSA is believed to back BRC's Product Recall Guidelines. "What we want is consistency of decision," said Swoffer.

See feature, p40.