EC plans attacked as threat to food safety

Draft proposals by the European Commission to radically overhaul food laws across Europe could actually make food less safe, a leading food-safety analyst has warned.

Dr Richard North believes plans to force even the smallest food operator to adopt permanent written procedures along the lines of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) will prove a bureaucratic nightmare and cost UK firms £2b without improving safety.

North, who is also research director for the Europe of Democracy and Diversity group in the European Parliament, also branded the proposed European Food Authority a "sham" and a "decoy". North said it was merely a "talking shop" that rationalised existing advisory committees.

He believed the authority had deflected debate from the 84 proposals in January's White Paper on food safety and the fact that the EC was taking over European food policy "lock, stock and barrel" and sidelining national bodies such as the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA).

North argued that some firms would simply go through the motions to satisfy enforcers, and that merely having HACCP documentation would allow offenders to cut corners yet still have a due-diligence defence. It could mean safe premises facing criminal charges for not having written procedures, while guilty companies with documents would escape prosecution.

An FSA spokesman said that there would be some flexibility in adapting HACCP systems (developed for manufacturers) for small caterers. But North believed any simplifications would backfire, with enforcers demanding maximum controls and caterers having to rewrite procedures for every menu change.

by Angela Frewin