March 2007

My colleagues in Nutrition Division have been working hard on the Agency's draft Saturated Fat and Energy Intake Programme, which went out for consultation this week. It's an important initiative - two of the major health issues in the UK are cardiovascular disease (CVD) and obesity, and diet has a significant influence on both.

This draft programme contributes to wider Government initiatives to reduce the incidence of CVD and obesity, through reducing population average intakes of saturated fat and helping people to achieve and maintain calorie balance.

Recently, the Government Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, gave a presentation on the Universal Ethical Code for Scientists – Rigour, Respect and Responsibility. This is an initiative to encourage scientists to foster ethical research and to reflect on the wider impact of their work. It covers the natural sciences and also the wider disciplines of social, medical and veterinary sciences and mathematics.

My job as Chief Scientist dovetails neatly with the enforcement policy work carried out by colleagues at the Agency. As a regulator we need to make sure that our policies and decisions are informed by the latest science, that they’re proportionate, common sense and put consumer safety first. We’re currently reviewing how we deliver meat hygiene controls in approved meat plants such as abattoirs. I followed the review update at last month’s open Board Meeting. Check out the webcast.

The Agency’s salt campaign kicks off again today with new ads and a revamped website. The number of organisations lending support to the campaign – from major manufacturers and retailers, to public sector and voluntary groups – just goes to show how far the issue of salt reduction has come. Some considerable reductions in salt levels in food products have already been achieved, and the urinary sodium results released today show there's been a small yet significant drop in the average daily salt consumption of UK adults from 9.5g five years ago to 9g.

The Agency has just issued precautionary advice to susceptible groups who may have eaten sandwiches containing Listeria monocytogenes.

This is a relatively rare form of food poisoning which rarely affects healthy people and is much less common than infection with salmonella or campylobacter. 

The feedback we have received from the food incident prevention and horizon scanning workshop held last week has been very positive, and I am grateful for the time and effort put into the event from all the speakers. A key theme from the event was that there is no single network or information source that will allow us to identify the shape of the future. But we must intelligently collect information from a variety of sources, analyse it in a less narrow way than we do at the moment, to identify the possible impacts on food safety, and then, crucially, share this information.

Last month we published the results from our most recent Consumer Attitudes to Food Survey. This survey, which has been conducted annually since 2000, allows us to measure and track over time the attitudes, knowledge and views of consumers towards both general food issues and the FSA itself. As Chief Scientist, one of my roles is to challenge and strengthen the way the Agency uses science to develop policies and advice.  The integrity of these processes is fundamental to earning trust; and I'm therefore pleased to see that the survey shows a further increase in the level of trust in the Agency.

Next week the Agency is hosting a workshop in London on food incident prevention and horizon scanning, in co-operation with EFSA - the European Food Safety Authority.

We're expecting 150 people from more than 20 countries to attend the event, which takes place on 5-6 March. I'm pleased it's taking place as it's very timely for us.

The topics under discussion are relevant to our revised strategic plan targets, but it also marks a first step towards delivering EFSA’s strategy on scientific co-operation.