Despite regulation, an estimated 48 million Americans still become infected because of food-borne illnesses every year according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Across the pond, in the UK, 2.4 million infections were discovered in 2018, and regulations are constantly being introduced by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to prevent illnesses related to what we eat. Analysis by WHO in 2015 showed almost one in ten people globally fell ill after eating contaminated food, and 420,000 die every year. Campylobacter and norovirus are the most common pathogens in the UK. Other common foodborne nasties include Clostridium perfringens and Salmonella. The results of infection can, in some cases, be deadly.
In an October speech highlighting the gap between the necessity and current funding for food standards, chief executive of the FSA Emily Miles passionately put forward the case that much more needs to be done to mitigate the threat of future pandemics. For example, despite the current crisis, food hygiene and food standards staff numbers are currently on the decline. Last year, a report from the National Audit Office identified an estimated drop of 13% and 45% in these roles respectively.
Emily Miles, Food Standards Agency
“At the start of this financial year, only 80% of the professional posts that local authorities need to run their food service were allocated budget for 2020–21,” Miles said in her speech at the virtual Food Safety Conference, hosted by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
“In other words, local authority food teams went into the pandemic already 20% below full strength. These already stretched resources have been further depleted since.”
As the country has seen with Covid-19, the repercussions that result from low food standards go beyond the disease itself – they could dramatically impact the UK’s economy in the future.
“Depleting regulatory resources now will have short and long-term impacts that will be challenging to reverse,” continued Miles. “And prevention is cheaper than cure.”
But putting the right regulatory resources in place is not something the FSA can achieve on its own, Miles went on to explain, because the budget just isn’t there.
“It’s ministers who own the powers for whether services can be charged out, and we are not in charge of how money gets allocated locally,” she said. “Money for food regulation comes from Her Majesty’s Treasury [HMT], via the MHCLG [Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government] grant, with no ring fence. We have made the case to both MHCLG and HMT for additional support.” Miles explained that she had recently written to local authority chief executives, highlighting the FSA’s serious concerns but also setting out expectations for priority activities.
“I understand that Covid-19 has introduced a whole range of other pressures, and that local politicians and leaders are understandably prioritising them, but I hope this kind of intervention from the FSA at a strategic level can help make the arguments for maintaining priority on food,” Miles said.
After the BSE crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, the UK saw a complete loss of beef exports for ten years, with an annual value of £1.22bn in today’s prices. Even after the EU export ban was repealed, there was permanent damage to the UK beef export market. Insufficient food standards can pose a dramatic threat to the economy and industries.
“The size of that market in 2019 was half of that in 1995, which was pre the BSE export ban. So if you get food safety wrong, the impacts last for decades,” Miles asserted. “Depleting regulatory resources now will have short and long-term impacts that are extremely challenging to reverse. This is my message to the treasury and others: prevention is cheaper than cure.”
Leaves means autonomy
Meanwhile, speculation about food imports has been rife in the UK since the decision to withdraw from the EU in 2016. There are fears that the country will now allow lower farming standards for imported food, including chlorinated chicken and hormone-injected beef products. While these fears persist, Miles sees some potential benefits associated with the divorce proceedings.
“The first [benefit] is, from January 2021, the UK will be in charge of its food and feed law for the first time in nearly 50 years,” Miles clarified in her speech. “It is not just about leaving the protection of the EU but how we are seen as a potential new trading partner by the rest of the world. About 90% of those regulations have been determined by Europe and, while they won’t change on 1 January, we now have [the] ability to take control, and more scope for designing a system fit for the challenges we face.”
While the twin challenges of Brexit and the pandemic persist, the FSA has separated risk assessment and risk management functions, doubled staff to 50 in risk analysis and added more than 300 academics to a list of experts it can call. Beyond the geopolitical realm, another big challenge is, according to Miles, the sheer pace of change in the industry.
Guy Poppy, Transforming UK Food Systems Programme
“We have seen changes in how food production has embraced digital technology, the changed relationship between the vendor and consumer; businesses have moved online and new platforms emerging has been accelerated by Covid-19,” she told attendees at the conference. “The current system has served us well. Environmental health officers and trading standards will continue to play a key role in ensuring businesses do the right thing. We need to make sure your limited resources are targeted at the areas of greatest risk.
“We did a blockchain pilot on traceability of meat, from farm through to shop. What we found was the data and the technology worked but there wasn’t trust that the farmer should share their data with the retailer. That’s the problem we’ve got to solve so we are able to create more traceability and safety.”
Injection of reality
Within hospitals particularly, these tracing programmes are vital. The consequences of food-borne diseases can be particularly devastating among already sick people. Now, the FSA has brought in a number of measures to protect the vulnerable. These recommendations include having dedicated food safety specialists in each NHS Trust, hospitals implementing robust food safety management systems and a compulsory function to report concerns across the entire hospital food chain. Crucially, NHS Trusts have to recognise that they are food business operators and responsible for ensuring that the food they provide is safe.
“We have seen the devastating consequences that food-borne disease outbreaks can have, and we welcome the recommendations to improve food safety in this report,” said Miles following the study’s release in late October.
“It is vitally important that all NHS Trusts recognise their legal responsibilities to ensure the food they sell and serve is safe to eat.”
Other organisations are now pushing for wider reform of regulations and a greater knowledge of the sector. Guy Poppy, director of the Transforming UK Food Systems Programme, pointed out in early November – alongside a report about the UK food system published by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – that, “How the UK food system has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it affects different parts of society is frequently being discussed by politicians, the media and the public. If we are to transform the UK food system to improve human health and environmental health, we need to understand the current system and how we might undertake research that can lead to a better food system for everyone in the UK.”
“Never before have we needed to map out our sector so urgently,” Poppy continued, “it helps our new UKRI strategic research priority programme develop the best research and evidence that will ultimately help us improve the health of the planet and human health, not only in the UK but across the world.”
Miles said of the same report that, “We welcome this and its contribution to our knowledge about the current food system and its make-up. As the food regulator, we want to make it as easy as possible for businesses to ensure that what we eat is safe and is what it says it is. It’s essential for the FSA to base our policy and practice on the facts.”
10%
People, globally, that fall ill after eating contaminated food. 420,000 also die every year from this.
WHO
13%
Drop in UK food hygiene staff numbers in 2019.
45%
Drop in UK food standards staff numbers in 2019.
FSA
