Food Standards Agency
Friday 19 March 2010
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The Food Standards Agency is responsible for improving food safety right through the food chain. This includes improving hygiene on the farm and ensuring that human health is not put at undue risk through what is fed to animals.
From 1 January 2006, food hygiene legislation has applied to farmers, growers and other producers, in many cases for the first time, as part of the 'farm to fork' approach to food safety. The Agency has developed a question and answer section for these primary producers on the legislation:
Animal feed plays an important part in the food chain and has implications for the composition and quality of the livestock products (milk, meat and eggs) that people consume. The Food Standards Agency is responsible for drawing up the rules on the composition and marketing of animal feed.
Under food hygiene legislation that came into effect on 1 January 2006, food businesses handling milk and dairy products require approval.
The Clean Livestock Policy sets out the standards for acceptable and unacceptable levels of cleanliness for cattle and sheep being presented for slaughter. It was published in September 1997 by the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) to improve hygiene standards following the fatal E-coli O157 outbreak in Scotland in 1996.
As part of the Agency's foodborne disease target and strategy to control campylobacter in UK-produced chickens, a campaign was launched in January 2004 to help improve hygiene measures on broiler farms and ensure that best practices are followed at all times.
Premises that handle or process fishery products and live bivalve molluscs must be approved under European Union Regulation 883/2004. Lists of approved premises are available.
Fish forms an important part of our diet and we should be eating at least two portions a week including one of oily fish. The Food Standards Agency is committed to taking sustainability into account when it makes policy decisions and issues its advice.
Food assurance schemes are voluntary arrangements through which consumers and businesses along the food chain are provided with assurance that food has been produced to certain standards. The Agency monitors whether consumer interests are represented in food assurance schemes.
The revised guide by FSA Scotland builds on existing good practice. The guide has been enhanced to include a section on food labelling to cover most food found at farmers markets.
Food Standards Agency guidance on managing farm manures to help reduce the number of consumers that get food poisoning from ready-to-eat crops.
The Agency has developed two codes of practice to reduce fusarium and ochratoxin A mycotoxins in cereals. Mycotoxins are poisonous compounds that may, under some conditions, be produced by certain species of fungi. The Agency has also published a guide to the codes of practice for cereal farmers.
The Food Standards Agency recognises the role that organic food plays in providing choice for consumers.
The Food Standards Agency ensures that food safety is given priority during the authorisation and monitoring of pesticides.
The Food Standards Agency's strategic plan for 2005-2010 states our aim to achieve a further significant reduction in foodborne illness. This includes the more specific target of working with industry to achieve a 50% reduction in the numbers of pigs testing positive for salmonella at slaughter by 2010.
Food safety regulation and monitoring of the shellfish harvesting industry.
The Food Standards Agency ensures that food safety is given high priority during the authorisation and monitoring of veterinary medicines.
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