The Food Standards Agency (FSA) published revised Food Law Code of Practice (the Code) for England and Northern Ireland (the Code), introducing a new model for delivering food standards controls this month, June 2023.
The new model will drive more frequent checks on non-compliant businesses, whilst reducing the checks on businesses that can demonstrate good levels of sustained compliance.
Many businesses with a good track record of compliance will therefore face less frequent inspections, while those with a poor track record will face greater scrutiny.
The updated guidance will therefore enable local authorities to use their resources more effectively, targeting their efforts towards the greatest risks within the supply chain. The new process is due to begin being rolled out across authorities this summer.
It will give local authorities greater flexibility to check compliance in different ways, for example through remote checks where appropriate, and it will increase the use of intelligence to inform understanding of risk in the food chain. This will help to ensure that action taken at the right stage of the supply chain, for example one intervention at the single point of manufacture or import rather than multiple interventions in a range of retail outlets.
The new model emphasises the use of intelligence to disrupt the supply of fraudulent or unsafe food from moving up through the supply chain.
Updated codes may be accessed here Food and Feed Codes of Practice | Food Standards Agency
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