Tony Blair was three years into his premiership when the Food Standards Agency was established in April 2000, in response to a series of high-profile, food-borne illness outbreaks and deaths, including mad cow disease. 

Keir Starmer, on the other hand, is presiding over another seismic change less than three months into his leadership. The food watchdog has unveiled plans for a huge shake-up of food safety laws that would surely have been unimaginable in Blair’s era. 

Under proposals revealed by The Grocer, the agency has laid out plans that would strip cash-strapped local authorities of control over food safety and hand it over to large businesses, including supermarkets, manufacturers and major out-of-home chains.

The aim is to allow food hygiene inspectors to concentrate their ever-dwindling resources on smaller “rogue operators”. Meanwhile, the agency would take direct control over food safety, including hygiene and food standards, for large companies across retail, manufacturing and the food to go sector.

Third-party data

The first stage would require supermarkets to provide the third-party data used to monitor their food hygiene performances – a set-up that has been trialled using data from Aldi, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.

According to the FSA, the data available from supermarkets offers greater insight into supermarkets’ adherence to food safety rules than creaking local authority regimes.

But the FSA’s plans extend much further than that. In its new direction of travel, large companies in other sectors – including food manufacturing and food to shop – would also come under the new national regulation scheme.

What’s more, the FSA plans for the approach to take in food standards regulations, which govern areas such as the composition of food – a key plank in the protection for people with food allergies.

The agency admits it faces major regulatory upheaval to get its proposals off the ground. While it is confident the changes for supermarkets can be launched as soon as this year, it will likely be a couple more before it looks to change food laws and potentially bring about secondary legislation, which would enable the FSA to assume much greater liability for food safety across the UK.

Local authority resources

The plans will likely also face barriers from local authorities, who will need convincing this is about using their resources to their best effect, rather than taking away their powers.

But it is also a major political challenge. Will a new Labour government, which itself brought the FSA into being, back plans that may be perceived as a two-tier system of regulation?

The FSA is adamant its moves in no way represent a move towards self regulation, despite the heavy reliance on data from the likes of Tesco and Aldi, rather than the traditional sources of frontline inspectors.

Had such a system been suggested in 2000, it would likely have caused a political firestorm. But in this day and age, given the appalling degradation of local authority capabilities, it’s far less black and white.

Whatever happens, the implications for supermarkets, manufacturers and other retailers are huge. And they will be equally seismic for the FSA and its responsibility for protecting consumers.

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