FIR webinar
David Pickering
David Pickering, team leader of the Trading Standards Institute, helped clear things up for the Food Service Group, Geeta’s Foods and Pami SA in our first gallery.
This time he answered the following questions:
“Would selling food past a best before date be an offence as this is likely to be a quality rather than a food safety issue?” Bruce Lambourne, head of technical at Mizkan Europe
“Has the offence related to selling after use by date changed?” Nino Binns, consultant at Nino Binns Consultancy
Pickering: “No, except it will now be an offence under section 8 of the Food Safety Act 1990 rather in the regulations.
“It could be an offence under section 14 of the Food Safety Act 1990, depending on the state of the food not of the nature, quality or substance demanded by the purchaser.”
“How would smaller businesses, such as farm shops, require to implement FIR?” Katharina Vogt, technical manager, Reaseheath College
Pickering said that regulations apply as they would to any other business, regardless of size.
“When allergens are present in your product is the allergen advice box indicating this mandatory? Or does making the ingredients bold suffice?” Pamela Richford, technical manager, Walter Black Foods
Pickering: “Allergen boxes stating the allergenic ingredients are not permitted as they are classed as voluntary information. The provision in the regulations is that voluntary information must be presented as if it were mandatory and the requirement is to emphasise the allergenic ingredient in the ingredients list. There is British Retail Consortium guidance saying a box can refer you to the ingredients list. For allergenic ingredients see ingredients in bold in ingredients list.”
When will the UK statutory instrument be published? Various
Pickering: “We understand from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that the UK statutory instrument, which will contain, amongst other things, the enforcement measures, penalties and information about the derogations, will be in force in May 2014.”