WIREDGOV

The Food Standards Agency has published its Annual Report and Consolidated Accounts 2010/11. The report highlights that during the past year, the Agency delivered a 35% reduction in expenditure in real terms, with the net cost of the FSA falling from £139.2m to £89.9m. In the forthcoming year this will continue with efforts to deliver further savings of £28.8 million for Westminster by 2014/15.

As well as presenting the FSA’s outturn and planned expenditure for 2010/11, the report also details the Agency’s progress against its strategy. To help ensure food produced or sold in the UK is safe to eat, the FSA took action on almost 1,600 national food and environmental contamination incidents during the past financial year, these ranged from counterfeit vodka to salmonella in bean sprouts.

Other activities include guidance for food businesses on controlling cross-contamination, updated training for local enforcement, and a review of legal powers and culture in food businesses, which were in response to the review of the E.coli outbreak in Wales in 2005.

To support work to improve hygiene standards and improve consumer choice, the Agency launched of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Food Hygiene Information Scheme in Scotland. These schemes allow consumers to easily check the hygiene standards of restaurants, cafés, takeaways hotels and other places you eat, as well as in supermarkets and other food shops.

The full report can be found at the link below.