Food incidents

The guidance and principles we’ve issued on food incidents is good because it was developed in consultation with a range of partners – a task force in the truest sense of the word.

I was struck by the real sense of partnership working adopted by the Food Incidents Task Force, which was set up after the 2005 incident that resulted in hundreds of products containing the Sudan I industrial dye being recalled. 

I hope the documents they've developed will help small and large businesses reduce the chances of food incidents occurring in future, and be better prepared when faced with one.

An incident, by the way, is an event where there are concerns about actual or suspected threats to the safety of quality of food that could require intervention to protect consumers’ interests.

I won’t list the task force membership here, except to say that it includes representatives from across the food chain, plus consumers, local authorities, and the insurance industry.

Nor will I go into much detail about the guidance itself. I suggest you study it in more detail and send any comments or questions to the blog.