A report into distance selling has made a number of recommendations aimed at ensuring people can feel as confident in the safety, labelling and quality of food when they purchase food 'at a distance' as when they buy it in shops, reports the UK Food Standards Agency.
The report, written by the former Food Advisory Committee at the request of the Agency's Board, points out that some aspects of the normal food control system do not currently apply to distance sales.
Mail order foods are, for example, exempt from some aspects of food hygiene legislation, particularly in the areas of temperature control, the report highlighted, and it recommends that the Agency should examine its policy in this area.
It also notes that food purchased for personal consumption from suppliers outside the UK are regarded as personal imports and will not be subject to UK food legislation. This means that the food may not meet standards set in UK legislation in terms of composition, safety and/or labelling. The report says that the Agency should look into international agreements covering this type of trade in foods.
The report also recommended that the Agency should: consider how a code of best practice should be developed; publicise the fact that when purchasing food from non-UK suppliers food labelling rules may apply in the country from which the purchase is made; undertake surveillance on the labelling of products purchased from distance sellers in the UK, EU and third countries; and should encourage suppliers of food on-line to provide potential purchasers with all the information, which, by law, is required to be provided when that food is sold through traditional retail outlets.