The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has proposed changes to the Food Law Code of Practice and accompanying guidance. A public consultation is open until May 19, 2025.
The code is statutory and sets out competent authorities’ responsibilities for enforcing businesses’ compliance with food law, and the accompanying guidance assists authorities with carrying out their responsibilities laid out in the code. Proposed changes to the code reflect challenges with the current food hygiene regulatory model identified in 2022, and consider responses to a public consultation on a modernized food hygiene delivery model (FHDM) conducted in 2023.
The consultation in 2023 led FSA to change course on some previously proposed elements of the FHDM; instead of progressing certain proposals, FSA chose to focus on developing the policy proposals that had broad support in the consultation and could be implemented without piloting, which are included in the main proposals for the consultation. The main changes to the code proposed in the present consultation are:
- An updated risk-based approach to the prioritization and timelines for undertaking initial food hygiene official controls of new food establishments
- Enabling the amendment of an establishment’s food hygiene intervention risk rating under certain circumstances, following a wider range of official control methods and techniques, including those undertaken remotely
- Expanding the activities that officers who do not hold an “appropriate qualification” for food hygiene or food standards can undertake, if they are competent
- Clarifying the approach to interventions at food business establishments that fall into Risk Category “E” for food hygiene
- Removal of a prescriptive number of hours required for continuing professional development
- Other amendments that provide clarity, improve consistency, and keep pace with current practices, but do not amend policy.
The proposed changes are intended to enable the more effective use of competent authorities’ resources by prioritizing controls at high-risk establishments, and removing unnecessary barriers to executing official controls by widening the pool of professionals who can undertake certain activities and enabling the greater use of existing flexibilities, including remote controls. The changes also aim to increase consistency in the delivery of official controls by providing policy clarification, and ensure the continued protection of public health and consumer confidence, including efforts in relation to the food hygiene rating scheme.
The public consultation packets for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland can be found at the following webpages:
