Former EFSA chief calls on UK to keep FSA

Leading food safety expert Prof Wall was responding to reports of UK Government plans to dismantle the FSA and hand over its roles to separate departments. He said such a move could be a “huge mistake”​ and would be a blow for both consumers and producers.

While acknowledging reform of the agency was needed, he said no government department could hope to match the FSA’s standing and reputation for transparency.

“A reform of the FSA is probably timely but its complete abolition would be a retrograde step,”​ he said. “Its brand name is well recognised on the global stage and stands for transparency, credibility, integrity and sound science - adjectives that will never describe a government department.”​

The associate professor of public health at University College Dublin mounted a robust defence of the need for the independent and apolitical food safety body set up in 2000. He said the agency was formed after a string of crises had undermined public confidence in the safety of the UK’s food supply.

The body is also one EU agency taking a trailblazing approach in pursuing reform of safety along food supply chain and it would be “a tragedy if this momentum were lost”​ as a result of the UK Government shake up, he said.

Conflict of interest​

Creation of the FSA had been “a courageous and radical approach where a non ministerial department was created that could make, and implement policy and reassure consumers that their interests were paramount”,​ said Prof Wall. He added that the need to separate the functions of government that support the agriculture and food sectors from those that control it had been well-recognised across the European Union and pointed out the concerns many had harboured over the former UK ministry’s conflict of interests in performing both roles.

“The former UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was perceived to be suffering from CJD - ‘conflicting job description’ - trying to protect the industry and the public’s health at the same time and succeeded in doing neither well”,​ he said.

Political agenda​

He pointed out that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was dedicated to developing the agrifood sector and questioned whether it was “wise​” to also give it responsibility for “reassuring consumers that their interests are being put before that of industry”.​

Before the FSA’s inception, policy and priority setting for food safety and nutrition was often based on the amount of media coverage rather than risk to public health, said Prof Wall. The agency, with its transparent science-based decisions, had credibility with consumers. It proved to be the model on which many other European agencies was modelled and he cautioned against its eradication.

“The FSA has one of the best scientific advisory structures in the world and to dismantle this and go back to a politically set agenda may be a huge mistake and both the agrifood sector and consumers could be losers”,​ he said.

FSA reform​

However, Prof Wall said the agency could need to be reformed as the UK “may have gone too far​ in conveying the power to make policy and implement it with the one body and creating a government department with no Minister”. ​

The UK Government has refused to confirm or deny plans to break up the FSA but said it was “under review”. ​