Farm to Fork

Posted by Andrew Wadge on June 22nd 2007 in Science, safety and health

My colleagues in the Enforcement and Communications divisions got together recently to look at some priorities for the coming year.

One of the key audiences they identified was farmers and other primary producers, and the things we could do to communicate more effectively with people who work in this vitally important sector.

Our approach is very much farm to fork – working to improve food safety at every step of the food chain.  So, while we are concerned with ensuring end-product food safety for consumers, we also work with primary producers to minimise potential safety risks at the initial farming stage. 

The Agency is also concerned with other issues regarding the production of food such as minimising levels of feed additives, such as nicarbazin in chicken, which I blogged about in April.

On our website there’s an area devoted to our information and advice for farmers.   Topics covered include guidance on animal feed regulations, crop guides on minimising pesticide residues, information on Agency monitoring of shellfish and our messages regarding organic food. 

We've produced information for livestock producers, such as the 'Cleaner Farms, Better Flocks'  leaflet which gives guidance to poultry farmers on controlling levels of campylobacter in UK chickens. 

Through this initiative and our other work with poultry farmers to improve on-farm biosecurity we aim to reduce the incidence of campylobacter in poultry flocks.

We have not just focused on livestock producers; we have also produced information and guidance for crop farmers too.  In February we launched two codes of good agricultural practice, which offer practical methods of reducing mycotoxin contamination of cereal crops.  

Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxic substances, produced under some conditions by certain species of fungi.  The Agency funded research into the agronomic factors affecting the development of mycotoxins in UK grown cereals and this provided the advice given to farmers in the codes of practice.  This week we sent out more than 40,000 leaflets to cereal farmers across the UK to alert them to the advice given in the codes of practice.

As a regulator we have to be sensitive to the time pressures faced by our stakeholders, so blitzing them with information would be counter-productive. It’s about getting the balance right. As ever, I would be interested in your views about how we’re doing, and how we can improve.

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Communication is the key

Posted by Alvaro Pastoriza (not verified) on 30/06/2007 - 12:14

Andrew

I obviously do not know as much as you do about your organization, but I have my opinion as an enforcement officer working for the meat hygiene service.

I regularly visit your website and I am a first hand witness that loads of information are available for whoever can be bothered to look for it.

I do not know how familiar you are with the peculiarities of the food industry and the realities of different size businessess dealing with food, but long hours and hard work are a very common reality, and very few companies have the time and even less the inclination of checking regularly for new emerging problems which in many cases they certainly do not believe that apply to them.

In my normal daily work, I have tried my bit by letting the farmers know what problems we were finding on their animals when we processed them at our abbattoir and the truth is that not much has changed...the good ones are still as good as they were and the bad ones will always be trailing them. The idea that knowledge in the answer to all our problems is not entirely true in my modest opinion...

How we communicate that knowledge is a different matter , I still remember when the changes on the TSE Regs took place how much confussion were all over the industry and how many letters the FSA and the MHS sent that nobody seem to understand because we have to become less technical and more approachable to let the people see the benefit to them on what we are trying to achieve.

We have to work with the industry and the consumer and engage them on the changing process, the consulation in the FSA though open, fair and transparent fail in my opinion to achieve their objective if we do not get all the major players to understand and agree the way forward.

The real driver of the change must be that we all feel that the change is a good thing and will be of benefit to everyone. That is my modest but sincere opinion and though you manage to provide loads of information and scientific evidence of all short, you do not engage with consumers and the industry so much.