Make the FIR fly
You do occasionally catch yourself wondering if it is going to happen, especially during those events which are less absorbing than last month’s seminar on the Food Information Regulation (FIR) was.
But when the chair fell backwards off the stage of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) event, it summed up a lot about the legislation under discussion.
It was not so much the ‘accident-waiting-to-happen’ element. And many see the FIR as a long-anticipated regulatory trial with few mitigating features.
It was more to do with the determination with which Alasdair Tucker, head of regulatory affairs at Premier Foods, sprang up from his upended chair, and the way other speakers, from the FDF, British Retail Consortium (BRC), Food Standards Agency (FSA) and National Measurement Office (NMO) rushed to help. Even delegates from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), showed some concern.
It all seemed to reflect the positive and supportive spirit in which the supply chain is facing this leap into the unknown. As Tucker, who is also chair of the FDF Food Law and Labelling Committee, said of one discussion, it was less of a Q&A session than a self-help group.
Deadlines for compliance (Return to top)
On the one hand, manufacturers and retailers are faced with pressing deadlines for compliance. The BRC estimates that a major chain might have up to 15,000 different labels to change by December 2014. But at the same time, there is no shortage of uncertainty – as well as complexity – about the FIR’s specific provisions.
Deputy director for food policy at the BRC Andrea Martinez-Inchausti highlighted the example of an even more urgent deadline. “When it comes to labelling minced meat, we are supposed to be compliant by January 2014,” she said. “But we have no national regulation and no guidance.” There was no indication as to whether a national derogation would apply, and conflicting advice from DEFRA, she added.
“This summarises where the retail industry is,” she said. “In the meantime, the retailers have tried to come to a reasonable agreement.”
To take another example, allergen labelling has critical consumer safety implications. And yet here, too, the FIR is forcing some basic changes on current UK best practice.
Overview (Return to top)
Giving an overview of allergen labelling, senior scientific officer from the FSA Chun-Han Chan explained that each allergen had to be highlighted – ideally in bold – in the ingredients listing. She added: “Separate allergy boxes are not permitted under the regulation."
According to the BRC, research had shown that many vulnerable shoppers in the UK rely on the ‘may contain’ box as an alert. So how to safeguard consumers and stay within the FIR?
“The retailers concluded that they should include a signpost referring consumers to the ingredients listing,” Martinez-Inchausti reported. The signpost may be headed ‘Allergy Advice’, for instance, and use wording such as: ‘For allergens, see ingredients in bold.’
This is not just about regulation – it is also about politics. On a national level, this type of political twist can speed up and even help to clarify the process. But when it is about corralling 28 EU Member States (MS), the effect tends to be more immobilisation and obfuscation.
In a presentation on country of origin labelling, DEFRA’s deputy director with responsibility for food security and standards, Lindsay Harris, explained: “This is the part of the legislation where there is the most still left undecided, and which is probably the most political. That combination is probably no coincidence.”
DEFRA guidance (Return to top)
Answering a later question from the floor about DEFRA guidance on FIR, head of food labelling at DEFRA Stephen Pugh said: “We’re currently drafting guidance.” He then added this Alice-in-Wonderland paradox: “Whether we’re allowed to actually publish that guidance is as much in the hands of our political masters as ourselves.”
When there are so many MS voices to be heard, ‘harmonisation’ inevitably involves a lot of shouting, screaming and plain discord.
Giving the NMO’s perspective, assistant director Lynnette Falk pointed out that there would be an end to UK exemptions for quantity labelling with small packs of products such as biscuits, herbs and spices and different kinds of confectionery. Such exemptions, the EU has said, would go against the spirit of harmonisation.
The good news is that, beyond our instinct to protect the familiar and fear the unknown, this arduous implementation process is ultimately about clarity, as well as business opportunities and consumer confidence. As Falk said: “The FIR does offer a simpler system than the existing UK weights and measures regulations.”
What seems muddled now might just appear crystal clear in a few years’ time.
