Food Standards Agency
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Listen to this siteThursday 3 April 2003
Westminster Diet and Health Forum Seminar, London
What I thought I'd do in the next ten minutes or so is start off with a very brief reflection on how the FSA has fared over its first three years and then share with you some thoughts about the ways in which I would like the FSA to develop in the future, particularly in relation to the theme of diet and health.
What I hope will come across is the way in which the work that we are doing and planning fits into a jigsaw, which the Minister for Public Health described as being encompassed in the Food and Health Action Plan. So our work is very much part of the broader Government initiative.
Let me just briefly, then, reflect on the achievements of the FSA so far in its first three years. As you know, we were set up against a background in which public trust in Government handling of food safety was at a low ebb - because of the BSE crisis in particular, and, for example, other issues such as salmonella in eggs. So we had the very difficult task from day one, of setting out to rebuild public trust. That’s a very difficult thing to do as trust is intangible. You can't demand it, you have to, somehow, earn it as a result of what you do and how you do it.
What we've tried to do over our three years is to set ourselves out to be rather different to the previous organisations in Government for handling food safety, being independent, being open and transparent, and clearly putting the interests of consumers first.
And, while now many of the things that we do seem quite commonplace, if you think back to three years ago, the notion of the relevant part of Government meeting in public to discuss issues of food safety policy, rather than behind closed doors; the notion of that part of Government being open and honest about uncertainty, involving stakeholders in developing policy rather than deciding and defending. If you think about these changes, what now seems commonplace, actually, when we started out, was relatively unusual.
I can think back, for example, to when we first mentioned the uncertainty in relation to the possible risk of BSE in sheep. We said, honestly, that the scientists don't know, and that there may be a small risk but that we can't really tell, and that we were not advising people to stop eating lamb and mutton, but they did need to be aware that there might be a small risk. Similarly, we said, more generally across the piece, that we can't guarantee that any kind of food is absolutely safe.
These were quite radical messages that are built on not only trying to express to people what is going on, and trusting people with information, but also immediately transmitting information and hoping that that will build trust in the FSA.
And we can measure our progress in building trust and recognition. We can see the results of in Annual Consumer Survey of 3000 people from around the country, which does suggest that levels of recognition, of confidence in the Agency, and trust are gradually growing. We've still got a very long way to go. We're not complacent, but I think that we are heading in the right direction.
Over the past three years we have focused very much on what might be described as 'traditional' issues of food safety: chemical contaminants, BSE, food poisoning, and so on.
We've put a large amount of effort into combating food poisoning because so many people suffer from food-borne illness. We have a target for reducing it by 20% over five years. And, when you think that when you eat out, half the people who work in catering businesses don't appear to wash their hands before preparing food, and more than a third didn't wash their hands after going to the lavatory while at work, you can see why we think it is important to have a campaign. Our campaign is not just targeting the catering sector - some parts of the catering sector are very good - but targeting right across the board to improve food safety in that area.
We've also put a lot of effort into authenticity, exposing scams like chicken diluted with water and into getting food labelling onto the European agenda.
In the future, I don't think that we will relax our attention to these food safety and consumer choice issues, but I think we will pay more attention than we have in the past to the issues of diet and health. This is because although in people's perceptions diet and health doesn't actually figure very high on the agenda, compared to issues such as food poisoning, BSE, pesticides and additives, the medical statistics tell a different picture.
Even though food-borne illness maybe kills 500 people a year, this is dwarfed by the food risks that contribute to cardio-vascular disease and cancer. And issues such as GM, pesticides and growth hormones, on the scale of risk, are practically not detectable.
There is also the growing epidemic of obesity, which has increased by a factor of three since 1980 in the country, but which is a worldwide threat, and is a new and growing food risk. Obesity is not simply about diet, but what we eat clearly has an influence.
So what can the FSA do in the area of diet and health? First, it must be recognised that there is a fundamental question about how much of this area is down to individual choice, how much is down to the responsibility of industry and how much of it is down to the Government to legislate.
In thinking about this it is worth bearing in mind the context. In one sense our food lives have never been better. If we look at the choice of, for example, fruit and vegetables that was available in 1950 in the supermarkets and the choice that is available today, we have more choice, more affordability and more convenience than we've ever had before.
But still, for people in the poorest parts of society this choice is not available. We must remember that the bottom 20% of earners in the UK spend more than 30% of their income on food, and the notion that people might be asked to pay more on food is, in my mind, not an option for the future.
It is also the case that there is a plethora of information - too much information and too little knowledge. It is very confusing for people. What are you to believe and where are you to get your information from?
A third important trend is the increasing reliance on food prepared by others. One of the big trends over the past 30 years is the increase in eating out and the increase in eating ready prepared meals.
So what can be done? Of course, the first thing is to establish the facts about what people eat. The FSA, together with the Department of Health, carries out National Diet and Nutrition Surveys. And the evidence is clear that while people are not undernourished, on the whole we eat too much sugar, too much saturated fat and too much salt, not enough fruit and vegetables, not enough oily fish and, in the case of teenage girls, not enough iron.
How should we help people help themselves? I think that there is certainly a role for the FSA to provide accessible and reliable information, and that's a huge challenge because of the background noise of unreliable but very high profile information. But beyond that there is a challenge to turn information into knowledge. Already half the population know about the 'five a day' message - it's actually 70% of AB social classes and 40% of DE social classes. But it is important to turn that knowledge into action. About 40% of people in social classes A and B eat five a day compared to about 20% of Ds and Es. And how do we bridge that gap between information and knowledge and knowledge and action?
I think that one of the keys is work with children. We've already heard about the DH initiatives with DfES on the whole school food environment. We are also working with the DfES and other departments over the next few months to identify the key food skills that every child should have when he or she leaves school. When I talk to teachers they bemoan the fact that food skills have been lost.
The first step is to identify those key skills and the second to find out how we can incorporate them into the existing curriculum.
But I think it is also crucial that children learn by experience.
I know from my own children, that their knowledge and understanding of food comes very much from their own experience of cooking and preparing food. And that's why we are working with the RSA to sponsor a second one of the school buses that go round the country visiting schools and giving kids a chance to get hands on experience that they might otherwise not have of food preparation.
There is a long waiting list for that bus. So, by sponsoring a second bus we are going to reduce the waiting list. We will get our bus to 6,000 children a year, and in school holidays we'll put it out in shopping malls and get to 20,000 adults a year, bringing to them hands on experience as part of improving their food knowledge.
What children eat at school is not only a source of dietary balance but forms habits for the future. That is why we are working with the DfES on a programme of audit of school meals. There has been for two years a set of standards for school meals, and now we are going to look at it with the DfES to see what is being offered against the standards and, importantly, at what children choose from within the offerings and what influences their choice.
Increasingly, the food we eat is prepared by others. And I think that there are at least two ways that the industry can help people help themselves. One is through labels. Labels on food don't always provide people with particularly helpful information.
For example, the claim that something is '80% fat free', in our consumer research, is understood by only by about half of consumers to mean the product could contain 20% fat, which is a very high fat content. It is read by people as meaning 'low fat', which isn't what it means at all.
So we do need to do work to improve the quality of labelling and, particularly, going beyond simple claims about what is in food to cover positive claims where foods are reputed to have health benefits, for example foods that claim to maintain a healthy heart, and so on. These claims are very confusing.
There is no legislative framework at the moment, although the European Commission is now producing one. In advance of that there is a Joint Health Claims Initiative, which is a voluntary initiative with industry.
The Food Standards Agency will, over the next few months, do some really focused survey work to help us understand what is being claimed under these health claims and how that stacks up against the scientific realities. We will also check whether or not the industry is following our guidelines on potentially misleading claims such as '80% fat free'.
Further, we are also going to look particularly at food ranges targeted at children, as people are especially worried about children's diets, and many of the retailers have food ranges targeted at children.
The question is, are these ranges healthier options or are they simply options that have been packaged for children.
So want to make some headway by looking at all of these issues and publishing the results. That will be a step towards increasing understanding of what is going on in relation to labelling.
What about the contents of the food itself. It is often said that there is no such thing as a bad food, only an unhealthy diet. But as we rely more and more on food processed and prepared by others I think that boundary blurs. That's why we in the FSA want to see the contents of processed foods adjusted by the industry in ways that are achievable without compromising safety and acceptability, to reflect scientific advice on healthier eating.
Our current focus is on salt. Research shows that all of us are currently eating 50% more salt than we should. That's been reinforced by new advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, which has set for the first time lower target levels for children. Most of the salt we eat is in food prepared for us by others, it's not what we add at the table or in cooking. And reducing salt in food processed for us will bring huge health benefits to the nation in terms of cardiovascular disease.
Looking at examples of some labels taken off products in the last couple of days from a major retailer. One shows that a single portion meal contains 4.5 grams of salt - that is 4.5 grams of salt out of 6 grams daily allowance in one meal. This happens to be one of the advertised 'healthy eating' options! Another meal, a single 'ready meal', contains 5.8 grams of salt, yet lower on the label it says that women should not eat more than 5 grams of salt a day. How can the food manufacturer simultaneously sell people a meal and give advice that they shouldn't eat it? So there is an issue here.
That is why we are very pleased that the breadmakers over the past three years have reduced the salt content of bread by 13% with no detectable impact on taste. And the Food and Drink Federation is developing proposals to reduce the salt content of some processed foods, such as soups and sauces produced by their members.
We'll need to model the effects of these changes in terms of their dietary impact.
We have yet to hear from the British Retail Consortium, the British Frozen Food Federation, the British Hospitality Association, and the British Beer and Pub Association and the Joint Food Service Industry. We asked them what they proposed to do and so far we've had a resounding silence. So we're hoping to hear soon because time is running out.
Any claims that are made must be fully transparent and independently checked. That is why we are doing our own surveys to ascertain what is going on.
So, in conclusion, we have spent the first three years at the Food Standards Agency establishing ourselves and building our reputation. I don't say that we have got there but we have made some progress. We focused very much on issues of food safety and consumer choice. In the future we will continue to focus on this - it is very important to protect public health and consumer interests. But we want to do more in relation to diet and health.
In the longer term we will be working with others across Government within the framework of the Food and Health Action Plan, to educate the next generation, to improve their dietary health. In the shorter term we will be aiming to make sure that labels are honest, informative and useful, and ensure that the way that information is given to the public enables them to correctly interpret the information on labels. We will also be working with the industry to re-formulate processed foods on which we increasingly rely, to help people to help themselves to choose a healthier diet.
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