The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published its ‘Annual Report of Incidents 2010’. The report includes case studies of some of the 1,505 incidents we handled during 2010, and which contributed to our overall strategic objective of safer food for the nation.
The report also outlines future challenges, such as working to ensure food at the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics venues is safe to eat.
Incidents of varying complexity and nature
In 2010, there were nearly 300 more incidents than in 2009. The report includes case studies on:
- a food fraud investigation and the subsequent seizures of illicit alcohol, some of which contained high levels of potentially harmful methanol;
- a Salmonella Bareilly outbreak associated with bean sprouts; and
- an amnesic shellfish poisoning in whole King Scallops.
The report also gives a breakdown of incidents by category, with the major categories being: environmental contamination (23% of incidents), microbiological (18%), natural chemical contamination (15%) and on-farm incidents (8%).
Improving the way they work
The FSA are always looking to improve the way they work, and during 2010 they refined their food alert system, carried out incident reviews and exercises, and provided local authority training workshops to improve incident handling and partnership working.
Product recalls and withdrawals
Action taken by the Agency in 2010 included the issuing of 70 product recall and withdrawal notifications, of which 34 were Allergy Alerts. These notifications give consumers and enforcement officers the information they need directly by email or SMS text message, as well as online.
What is an incident?
The Agency uses the following definition of an incident:
‘Any event where, based on the information available, there are concerns about actual or suspected threats to the safety or quality of food that could require intervention to protect consumers’ interests.’
Incidents fall broadly into two categories:
- Incidents involving contamination of food or animal feed in the processing, distribution, retail and catering chains. These incidents may result in action to withdraw the food from sale and, in certain circumstances, to recall the food from consumers, alerting the public not to consume potentially contaminated food.
- Environmental pollution incidents, for example fires, chemical/oil spills and radiation leaks, that may involve voluntary or statutory action (such as orders made under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985).
Report PDF available here
Source: Food Standards Agency
