During a May 31, 2015, interview with BBC One’s “The Andrew Marr Show,” National Health Service (NHS) England Chief Executive Simon Stevens called on industry stakeholders to reduce the amount of sugar in food and beverage products. In particular, he claimed that “one in three of our teenagers are drinking high-energy, sugary drinks,” urging “responsible retailers [and] food producers” to reformulate their products as they once did to reduce salt content. “We’ve done very well in terms of cutting smoking and teenage pregnancy and drink driving,” Stevens was quoted as saying. “But the new smoking is obesity. One in five cancer deaths is now caused by obesity.” See Press Association, May 31, 2015. Issue 567
Tag Archives UK
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued its Strategic Plan 2015-20 outlining a number of initiatives it plans to undertake with industry and other stakeholders over the next five years. Key activities include (i) implementing campaigns to reduce the incidence of food-borne illness caused by Campylobacter and Listeria infections; (ii) expanding capabilities of the agency’s newly established Food Crime Unit; (iii) expanding the agency’s horizon scanning and emerging risks analytical capabilities; (iv) establishing new platforms for consumer engagement; and (v) continuing robust engagement with the European Union on revisions to the regulation on official food and feed controls. See FSA News Release, June 3, 2015. Issue 567
The U.K. Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) has dismissed a complaint alleging that a message on Diageo Great Britain Ltd.’s Guinness® Twitter feed “implied that someone’s week would be improved by drinking alcohol.” Filed by Alcohol Concern, the complaint dubbed a tweet appearing on @GuinnessGB “irresponsible” for featuring a photograph of the iconic brewery’s gates with the caption, “a good week starts here.” Dismissing the challenge, ASA ultimately agreed with Diageo Great Britain that consumers would recognize the gates as belonging to St. James Brewery in Dublin and would not confuse the brewery with a bar or other social venue where alcohol was consumed. According to Diageo Great Britain, the followers of @GuinnessGB would also understand the tweet as part of a larger ad campaign highlighting individual workers at the brewery. “We also noted that the photo was tweeted on Monday,” states ASA. “In this context, we considered that the ad…
According to a Crown Prosecution Service press release, Peter Boddy and David Moss have been sentenced in the first prosecutions stemming from the “horsemeat scandal” of 2013. Moss, the slaughterhouse manager, was convicted of falsifying an invoice during a U.K. Food Standards Agency investigation and received a four-month suspended prison sentence. Slaughterhouse owner Boddy was fined ₤8,000 for failing to keep adequate records that could trace the origin of the meat, and each defendant must also pay costs of ₤10,442 within six months. “This deception is serious—the absence of proper records means that it is not possible to identify whether the horsemeat may have entered the human food chain,” the prosecutor said. “It also means that if there was a problem with the horsemeat it would not be possible to recall it.” Issue 560
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced the final results of an aspartame study commissioned by the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), which peer-reviewed the initial findings in December 2013. Authored by Hull York Medical School researchers, the study relied on data from 48 individuals who self-identified as sensitive to the artificial sweetener aspartame. After examining various factors—including psychological testing, clinical observation and biochemistry, and metabolomics—the authors found that the participants “showed no difference in their responses after consuming a cereal bar, whether it contained aspartame or not,” according to FSA’s March 19, 2015, press release. Additional details about COT’s review of the study data appear in Issue 506 of this Update. Issue 559
The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), an independent group charged with providing counsel to various UK government agencies, is holding a March 18, 2015, symposium in Birmingham about the possible role of exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on the development of obesity. The robust agenda will include presentations from UK and Italian experts. See Food Standards Agency News Release, January 28, 2015. Issue 554
A consortium of prosecco manufacturers has reportedly contacted the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency and Intellectual Property Office to threaten legal action under EU trading regulations against British wine bars and pubs that refuse to stop serving the sparkling wine from a keg. Prosecco sales apparently surpassed those of its rival, champagne, for the first time in 2014, and in the same year the United Kingdom replaced Germany as the top export market for prosecco. “If prosecco is sold on tap then it is no longer prosecco—it needs to be served directly from the bottle,” Luca Giavi, director of the consortium, told The Telegraph. The winemakers cite a 2009 European law which states that “prosecco wine shall be marketed exclusively in traditional glass bottles,” and the president of the consortium, Stefano Zanettin, asserted that violations can merit fines ranging from €2,000 to €20,000. Michele Anzaldi, a member of the Italian…
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints against a TV commercial claiming that Kellogg’s “Special K Multi Grain Porridge” contained “30% less fat than other porridges.” According to ASA, which received complaints from PepsiCo Inc. and 14 other competitors, Kellogg Marketing and Sales Co. (UK) Ltd. argued that the advertisement’s reduced-fat comparative claim complied with the Annex to EC Regulation 1924/2006 on Nutrition and Health Claims Made on Food. To this end, Kellogg provided ASA and Clearcast with the data and methods used to conduct product comparisons under this regulation. The company reportedly explained that all varieties of Special K porridges contained 5.5 percent fat or less, whereas the top 75 percent of porridge products on the market contained an average fat content of 7.84 percent. “Kellogg also pointed out than none of the products included in the comparison had a fat content of 5.5% or less,” noted…
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Food Standards Agency on September 4, 2014, issued a final report evaluating U.K. food supply networks and containing recommendations for government action to address any weaknesses. The government commissioned the report from University of Belfast Professor Chris Elliott following a 2013 incident known as “Horsegate” in which various beef products were found to be adulterated with undeclared horse meat. In response to the report’s eight major recommendations, the government has vowed to establish a Food Crime Unit by the end of 2014. Supported by a number of state, local, federal, and international law enforcement agencies, the Unit will reportedly focus its initial efforts on gathering intelligence about the nature and risks of food fraud. Other actions the government reportedly plans to implement go from setting up a network of food analytical laboratories to using standardized testing methodologies and creating a…
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dismissed complaints challenging print and TV advertisements that tout Tesco-brand milk as fairly priced and responsibly sourced. In particular, the complaints alleged that (i) “the image of cows in an open field did not accurately represent how the milk was produced or the conditions in which the cows lived” and (ii) only a small proportion of Tesco’s milk was sourced through the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group (TSDG). According to ASA, Tesco countered that all of its core milk suppliers must meet industry Red Tractor standards as well as Tesco’s own Livestock Code of Practice, which focuses on food safety, environmental indicators and “welfare outcome measures such as lameness, mastitis, fertility, and animal health.” The retailer also reiterated that core farmers with TSDG “supplied approximately 80% of Tesco’s total milk requirements over the course of the year,” while seasonal farmers provided additional milk during…
