Responding to Meat Management’s queries regarding plans that will see food businesses pay for audits, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has attempted to clarify who will be affected and how these changes will come about.
According to FSA, the new regulatory regime’s principle that “food businesses should bear the cost of regulation and that cost should be no more than it needs to be” is to be applied “across all parts of the feed and food chain”.
However, the agency told us that this part of the programme is at a “very early stage of development and the options for how the principle could be applied have yet to be considered”.
It added that it will “work closely with all parts of industry in developing the options”, but failed to provide further explanation as to who will charge businesses and which businesses specifically will be affected (e.g. abattoirs and butchers). Members of the industry have expressed confusion to Meat Management as slaughterhouses and cutting plants already pay for audits.
FSA unveiled the plan last week, as part of a regulatory overhaul towards a more “fit-for-purpose” system, including what the agency calls a “sustainable funding model”.
The paper stated that businesses requiring greater Governmental intervention and posing bigger risks will bear the highest costs.
The changes will attempt to deliver a new regulatory model for food businesses, which will unfold around the Brexit timeline and is expected to be in place by 2020.
The four-year plan will put in place an enhanced system of registration for businesses, while using a range of “risk indicators” to segment businesses in a better way, based on wider information about the businesses.
In addition, businesses that can demonstrate a “good history of compliance” will face a “lower burden from regulation”, while FSA will also introduce a mandatory Food Hygiene Rating Scheme in England, similar to that already existing in Wales and Northern Ireland.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
