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Concerns over independence of new food safety body

In January the government announced that it would establish a food safety adviser to chair a newly-created Food Safety Council, and would also ask the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Kenneth Calman, to advise the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on matters of public health.

The moves are seen as an attempt to rebuild public confidence following a series of food safety crises, culminating in the BSE epidemic, in which MAFF has seemed to take the side of food producers, rather than consumers.

But doubts have been raised over the degree of independence which the new advisory council will in fact be allowed. Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygeine, and Tim Lang, professor of food policy at Thames Valley University, argue that there needs to be a formal separation of MAFF so that the sponsorship of commercial interests does not conflict with the protection of consumers’ health.

Writing in the I, they suggest that experience from other European countries provides a range of models of how this might be achieved.

In Ireland the government established an independent Food Safety Board, which excludes industry representatives and has met with general approval.

Norway and Denmark also have national food administrations, though there are concerns in Denmark that the system is too distant from central government.