FSA consults on Food Law Code of Practice changes

The Food Law Code of Practice provides statutory guidance to local authorities about how they should carry out official controls at food businesses and enforce food law.

Streamlining enforcement​

Proposed changes include modernising risk descriptions, redistributing the minimum inspection frequency of some businesses and streamlining enforcement provisions.

Specific changes include:

• Updating and clarifying the risk descriptions used to assign risk scores to food businesses, with the aim of improving the consistency of risk scoring by officers.
• Improving the effectiveness of enforcement by redistributing the minimum inspection frequency of a number of businesses. The change will allow local authorities to focus their enforcement resources on those businesses that are non-compliant with food law, said the FSA.
• Streamlining enforcement by enabling the transfer of enforcement powers to a single enforcement body in a small group of food businesses, where joint enforcement currently takes place.

These changes would ensure the delivery of official controls targeted at businesses where intervention was necessary and that food business operators comply with food law, said the food safety watchdog.

The code required periodic revision to reflect current enforcement practices and priorities, it added.

Local authorities​

Meanwhile, the code continued “to support local authorities in ensuring that the delivery of official controls is proportionate, risk-based, effective and consistent”,​ said the FSA.

The consultation will close on September 17 2013.

There are separate codes of practice and practice guidance for each of the four UK countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

More information about the Food Law Code of Practice is available here​.

A similar consultation on the Feed Law Code of Practice will take place in the autumn of 2013.