Food safety
The many foods we eat reach us at the end of a long chain of processes, from pastures to the dinner plate, and need protection against contamination at every stage. Through its Joint Food Safety and Standards Group, MAFF operates co-ordinated programmes of research and monitoring the food supply. It controls health risks both directly, by regulating the industry, and indirectly, by informing and advising the consumer. Every year approximately 130,000 analyses of food are carried out, and £15 million spent on research into food safety. The results of all our food surveys are published in brief in the Food Safety Information Bulletin and in more detail in the separate Food Surveillance Information Sheets.
The Guidelines for planning and reporting JFSSG surveys 
are available in PDF format. To read this document, or any others with the logo, you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader downloadable free of charge by clicking here.
Food Law
Food Law available in PDF format, contains information about UK food legislation. It is intended only as a general guide, for definitive information you should consult the appropriate Act, Order , Regulation or Code of Practice. For details of any amendments to the legislation listed in the guide please consult the Stationery Office's website at: www.tsonline.co.uk/ or the contact address given at the end of each section. The legislation listed in this guide applies only to England and Wales. Similar but separate legislation applies to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Where this is not the case it will be stated in the guide. However, the Food Safety Act 1990 and regulations made under it from 1990 onwards apply to Great Britain unless otherwise stated. Wherever possible, this guide states which EC rules have been transposed and implemented into our food law by virtue of regulations listed in the guide. We acknowledge the invaluable help given by Government departments for enabling this guide to contain legislation for which they are responsible and which impacts on UK food law.
Enforcement of food safety - the Official Control of Foodstuffs
Under the Council Directive on the official control of foodstuffs (89/397/EEC), member states are required to submit an annual return to the European Commission giving details of the number and types of inspections carried out and infringements found. In the UK the required information is compiled from returns submitted by local authorities which are the relevant enforcement authorities.
Details of the UK 1998 returns and separate summaries of the results for UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as blank forms and a list of official food control laboratories in the UK nominated to carry out chemical analyses and/or microbiological examination of food are available.
Radiological safety and emergency response
The levels of radioactivity in food are routinely monitored by MAFF, and provisional
radiological surveillance results are now available. Details
of how to obtain the 1998
Radioactivity in Food and the Environment annual report and evaluation
(RIFE 4) are also available.
Incident surveillance reports have been issued in response to the following:
The Food Protection 1998 Report has been published. This summarises the chemical and nuclear contamination incidents, with potential food safety implications, that were dealt with by the Food Safety Incident Response Team during 1998.
For the purpose of radionuclide discharge Authorisations, MAFF assesses radiation doses via the foodchain to critical groups near nuclear facilities. MAFF's Guidance for Assessing the Potential Impact of Radiological Discharges to the Environment sets out the approaches, assumptions and methodologies used in MAFF dose assessments. The handbook also describes differences in methodologies appropriate for different objectives.
Review of Public Analyst Arrangements in England and Wales
The review was announced by the Minister for Food Safety, Mr Rooker, on 23 April 1998. The terms of reference and composition of the independent review group are included in MAFF News Release 160/98. The Group has now completed its work and its report is available in PDF format.
Animal feedingstuffs
Professor Phillip Thomas will be the first chair of the new and independent Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF).
Further information
A Review of antimicrobial resistance in the food chain has been published in PDF format.
Go to top of page
Back to Food Safety and Standards Homepage
This page was last updated on 28 February 2000
