Food labelling is EU competence

A casual look at my erstwhile blogging home showed me that the Boss had picked up those idiotic comments about the Cleggeron Coalition doing away with certain food labelling regulations, in particular the one to do with "best before".

We have a thoroughly ignorant story by Patrick Hennessy, which fails to mention a crucial fact: food labelling is EU competence and the "best before" labels cannot be dropped or seriously altered by HMG or Parliament or, even, that mighty organization the Food Standards Agency, which is not being abolished. (Though, to be fair, food labelling rules will now be implemented by DEFRA rather than the FSA.)

The legislation for food labelling, however, comes from that fountain of modern British legislation, the European Union, specifically,

DIRECTIVE 2000/13/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 20 March 2000, on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs.

1. In accordance with Articles 4 to 17 and subject to the exceptions contained therein, indication of the following particulars alone shall be compulsory on the labelling of foodstuffs: ... (5) the date of minimum durability or, in the case of foodstuffs which, from the microbiological point of view, are highly perishable, the ‘use by’ date;

So far as anyone knows that has not been changed, altered or abolished. This paper by DEFRA gives an efficient summary of the subject, emphasises the fact that food labelling is controlled and regulated by the EU and talks of the ongoing negotiations (ongoing for some years) for reform of the system at the European level, there not being any other alternative.

As a matter of fact, we have been here before. Periodically, the subject of food labelling comes up, hacks and politicians get excited and make promises, then everything dies down as everybody realizes that this is not something our own Parliament can legislate on.

What do we see here? The same ridiculous story, this time by Louise Gray, on June 10, 2009. It looks like the Telegraph believes in recycling stories as well as everything else. That time Lord Willoughby de Broke asked a Written Question about it in the House of Lords:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their proposals to clarify the "best before", "sell by" and "use by" recommendations on food products in retail outlets require the permission of the European Commission.

The answer was short and to the point:

Permission of the European Commission is not required as we are working within existing European Union law.

So, that's that. Can we now leave this subject alone or start saying something sensible about it? UPDATE: There is more on the subject over on EURef.

Excellent

Never did I think I shall see something on the Food Standards Agency website that I would cheer about. But here it is:

Respondents were asked how worried they were about certain perceived food risks such as pesticides, food poisoning, and hormones in meat. British respondents were less worried about all of these perceived risks than their European counterparts but were most concerned about the welfare of farmed animals and the quality and freshness of food.

UK respondents were more worried about the economic crises negatively affecting their lives than concerned that the food they personally eat could possibly damage their health. Only 29% of UK respondents thought that food could possibly damage their health as opposed to 48% in the rest of the EU. UK consumers were also less likely to permanently change their eating habits after hearing that a type of food was unsafe following media stories (only 7% in the UK compared to 11% in Europe).

Of course that will not stop the media from running more scare stories but, at least, ever fewer people pay attention. By the way, the Food Standards Agency is not being abolished. I thought you might like to be reminded of that.

Food Standards Agency again

I apologize for returning to this wearisome subject but it seems to me that the FSA and its future clarify many of the issues connected with quangos and the Cleggeron Coalition's attitude to them, not to mention the ease with which people can be fooled into believing good tidings. As this blog has pointed out here and here the great hurrah that went up when the abolition of the Food Standards Agency was kind of announced was extremely premature. Indeed, since then we have been "reassured" that the Agency was not going to be abolished but certain changes in responsibilities for implementing EU regulations (though it is not put quite like that normally) will be made.

This morning I received the August edition of the Food Trader for Butchers (another left-over from past employment with the Countryside Alliance) and found this article on page 3: FSA Future Now Clarified Indeed, it is.

Speculation that the Food Standards Agency was about to be abolished was finally squashed by a Downing Street announcement on 20th July. There will, however be major changes in responsibility.

Food nutrition policy, an area that the Agency notoriously struggled to get to grips with, is being transferred back to the Department of Health along with around 70 senior civil servants. Critics of the FSA were always quick to point to the disastrous and ill-fated battle with the food industry over traffic light labelling. Others, including many butchers, often pointed out the weaknesses in their simplistic messages such as "eat five a day" or less fat/salt/sugar etc.

I find it quite endearing that anyone can suppose that simplistic and often erroneous messages will cease if the same regulators/civil servants will now work in the Department of Health rather than the Food Standards Agency. As for labelling, that remains entirely in the EU's not so capable hands and it is there that the traffic light version was voted down.

Another major change will be the transfer back to DEFRA of policy matters relating to food labelling (where not related to food hygiene) and also food composition regulations such as meat content in sausages.This means that DEFRA will now oversee the introduction of Country of Origin labelling.

A separate article on page 9 of the publication tells of the vote in the European Parliament on the subject. The National Federation of Meat and Food Traders is fully aware of how much of the regulation their members have to obey comes from the EU. Being a lobbying and advisory organization it passes no political judgement on that, merely try to get the best deal for their members and explain what each piece of legislation implies for them. Even so, it is odd that there is no direct mention of the EU in this article, unless the author assumed that every reader will know.

The changes are no altogether welcome to butchers, it seems, as they will create more work for them.

This will create extra work for industry because instead of dealing with one Government department on the massive new Food Information Regulations they will now have to deal with two.

Another complication is that these changes only affect the FSA in England.The FSA branches inWales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will continue to report on all current matters to the devolved authorities and this is likely to cause much confusion.

And why not?

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (these titles become more and more meaningless with each government) is, naturally enough, pleased.

It makes perfect sense to bring policy on food origin and associated labelling to Defra to sit with wider food policy.The Government has made very clear its commitment to clear and honest labelling - particularly origin labelling.

These changes will allow the FSA to focus on food safety and it is right that this should stay in the hands of an independent body.

It would appear that the Government is still having problems in making its commitment to a clear and honest admission about where competence lies.

Am I surprised?

It seems that, despite all the hoopla, the Food Standards Agency, as this blog predicted, will not be abolished. There will, apparently, be a few changes, none major and none that involves redundancies among the bloated pay roll:

Responsibility for nutritional policy in England will shift to the Department of Health and authority for country of origin labeling and other food labeling not related to food safety and food composition policies in England will go to the Department for Environmental, Food, and Rural Affairs.

Those changes will mean about 100 Food Standards Agency positions will shift to one of the other two ministerial departments, the government said.

Just one point that the Food Safety News seems unable to grasp: country of origin labelling is EU competence. Whoever allegedly has "the authority" for it in the various parts of this country will be implementing EU rules.