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Food & Drink update – January 2018

Food & Drink update – January 2018

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Food manufacturers are singled out for unannounced HSE inspections

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) programme of proactive inspections has begun and will review […]

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) programme of proactive inspections has begun and will review health and safety standards in food manufacturing businesses across the country. The sector is being warned that a programme of unannounced inspections began at the start of January 2018 and will run throughout the year.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning companies and people working in food manufacturing they must pay closer attention to how they manage workplace health risks or face serious penalties.

The HSE’s programme of proactive inspections will review health and safety standards in food manufacturing businesses across the country, and the sector is being warned that a programme of unannounced inspections began at the start of the year.

According to the HSE’s website, the inspections will focus on two of the main causes of ill-health in the food manufacturing sector which are currently occupational asthma from exposure to flour dust in bakeries, cake and biscuit manufacturers and grain mills and musculoskeletal disorders from manual handling activities and repetitive tasks across the sector.

Exposure to flour dust is the UK’s second most common cause of occupational asthma. Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common type of work-related illness in food manufacturing with handling injuries, accounting for around 20 per cent. of reported employee injuries. The HSE insists that such ill-health can be prevented when organisations have proper risk control systems in place.

The aim of the inspections is to ensure measures are being taken to protect workers against health risks and the HSE says that it will not hesitate to use enforcement actions to bring about improvements.

HSE’s head of Manufacturing Sector John Rowe, said: “The food manufacturing sector is made up of over 300,000 workers and its health and safety record needs to improve. This inspection initiative will look to ensure effective management and control of targeted health risks.”

WM Comment

Stuart Ponting, Regulatory Partner and Health and Safety specialist at Walker Morris comments: “With fines for breaches of health and safety laws increasing dramatically in the last few years, manufacturers should take action now and ensure they are compliant rather than wait for an unannounced inspection to highlight their failings.”

Walker Morris has one of the largest teams of health and safety lawyers in the UK. We advise numerous food manufacturers on their regulatory obligations and compliance measures and offer pre-inspection audits and guidance to help our clients meet their legal duties

Shake up to the Novel Foods Regime

New rules on novel foods and novel food ingredients came into force on 1 January […]

New rules on novel foods and novel food ingredients came into force on 1 January 2018 as a result of updated EU legislation. It is hoped that the new rules will reduce the time it takes to get novel foods authorised thereby encouraging innovation within the food industry.

Throughout history new foods have entered Europe from far flung parts of the world. Coffee, tea, rice and sugar are now mainstream products but when they first arrived on the trading ships they would certainly have been classed as novel. More recently acai berries, chia seeds, quinoa and moringa pods have started to appear on the supermarket shelves. In addition, locusts, crickets and other insects are a significant source of protein in other parts of the world and it might not be long before we see them being eaten in this country.

Regulators are obviously keen to ensure that novel foods are safe to eat and so the introduction of such foods is governed by EU legislation. Novel foods are subject to a safety assessment to authorise them before they are allowed to be placed on the market in the EU. Up until the start of this year, novel foods were governed by Regulation EC 258/97. The definition of a novel food under the regulation was one which had not been “used for human consumption to a significant degree” in the EU before May 1997. Unfortunately this was a rather subjective definition and approvals would take on average three and a half years to obtain. Approval was a two stage process whereby a preliminary assessment was undertaken in the country of application followed by endorsement by all EU member states.

The new regime which came into force on 1 January 2018 is intended to bring some much needed clarity on what exactly is a novel food and also speed up the approval process. The changes brought in by Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 hope to achieve the following:

quicker delivery of approvals by the creation of a centralised authorisation system. Individual member states will no longer be involved
a simpler means of dealing with foods that are traditional in other countries
a generic approval for the novel food rather than an approval being granted to each applicant.

The last bullet point may have significant practical implications. Under the old system only the food business that applied for authorisation could use the authorisation and details of the application were kept confidential. This meant that any information about where an ingredient was sourced or how it was processed was kept secret. In addition since only the applicant could use the authorisation, they had a monopoly on sales of the novel food until another business applied for their own authorisation (on the basis that their product was ‘substantially equivalent’ to the approved food).

Under the new system authorisations will be industry wide and so once a food business has applied for authorisation, all of its competitors will be able to make use of any resulting approval. Although the legislators view this as opening up the approvals process, food businesses may be discouraged from investing in the development of novel foods if they believe that their competitors can ride along on their coattails.

WM Comment

The new regulation has direct effect in the UK and does not need to be transposed into law by the UK government. Clearly the new regime is an EU initiative and it is unclear what effect Brexit will have on the legislation. It is possible that leaving the EU will encourage the government to look again at the novel foods regime and see whether it really does promote the development of new and innovative products. In the meantime it may be useful to speak to our Intellectual Property team to ensure that any proprietary information is protected before you embark on authorisation using the new regime.

ASA to ban harmful gender stereotyping

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has announced that a new rule will be introduced […]

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has announced that a new rule will be introduced in the UK Advertising Codes in 2018 banning harmful gender stereotyping in advertising.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has previously carried out a review entitled Depictions, Perceptions and Harm which looked at harmful gender stereotyping in advertising and concluded that there was a case for stronger regulation of advertisements that feature stereotypical gender roles or characteristics which can be harmful to people, including adverts which make fun of people for not conforming to gender stereotypes.

Evidence collected by the ASA suggested that harmful stereotypes can ‘restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults’. Following the outcome of the review, CAP has developed a new rule and guidance on the depiction of gender stereotypes which will be published for consultation in the Spring, 2018.

The new rule does not go as far as banning all forms of gender stereotyping, for example an advert showing a woman cleaning or a man doing DIY will still be allowed. However an advert showing all family members making a mess and only the mother cleaning up would probably be caught.

Ella Smillie from CAP said “Some gender stereotypes in ads can contribute to harm for adults and children by limiting how people see themselves, how others see them, and potentially restricting the life decisions they take. The introduction of a new advertising rule from 2018 will help advertisers to know where to draw the line on the use of acceptable and unacceptable stereotypes.”

Guy Parker, Chief Executive of the ASA, said “While advertising is only one of many factors that contribute to unequal gender outcomes, we welcome CAP’s decision to introduce a new rule on harmful gender stereotypes in ads. Although companies have responded positively and constructively to our report, with welcome examples of voluntary action, there is more to do. We are determined to make sure our regulation calls out harmful and outdated practices and a new rule in the Advertising Codes will help tackle the harmful gender stereotypes identified in our review of the evidence.”

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