Paul Allen - European Food Law Association UK
Jonathan Clogstoun-Willmott - Age Concern Scotland
Gilli Cliff - Advisory Committee to FSA Wales
Ann Davison - Consumer Engagement Project, Defra
Margaret Foss - National Federation of Women’s Institutes
Mike Jobson - ex Trading Standards Institute
Susan Knox - Chairperson
Dr Alex Lobb - University of Reading
Diane McCrea - Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs
Micah McGuire - Food Standards Agency
Penny McNeill - General Consumer Council for NI
Helen Millar - National Consumer Federation
Sue Payne - National Consumer Federation
David Pickering - Trading Standards Institute
Jacquie Salfield - Institute of Consumer Sciences
Barbara Saunders - Independent Enquiry into failures in BSE Testing
Shree Om Parkash Sharma - National Council of Hindu Temples
Julia Unwin - FSA, Deputy Chair
Alma Williams - Committee on Toxicity and EESC

Lucy Harris - UK Co-ordinator
Jane Jeffreys - Foodaware, Administrative support

Jaswinder Bangar - FSA, Consumer Branch
Erica Bargman - European Union of Women
Judy Brander - National Council of Women of GB
Dorothy Craig Veterinary Residues Committee
John Godfrey - ERICA, FSA Consumer Committee
Sheila Graham - Veterinary Products Committee
Fiona Hodgson - ex Committee on Animal Feedingstuff
Dr Catherine Humphries - Co-operative Group
Dr A.Majid Katme - Muslim Council of Britain
Jeanette Longfield - Sustain
Dr Tom MacMillan - Food Ethics Council
Charlotte Meller - LACORS
Dilwen Phillips - Advisory Committee for Wales
Pamela Pollock - Townswomen’s Guilds
Christine Sanderson Fagan - Soroptimist International UK
David Smith - Welsh Food Alliance
John Verrall - Veterinary Products Committee
Stella Walsh - National Consumer Federation
Katy Waters - National Childbirth Trust
Grace Wedekind - International Council of Women
Anne Wilson - Meat Hygiene Advisory Committee

• Promotion of food to children - Progress being made on this, working with partners.
• Signpost labelling - best options for this, based on science and what consumers would find useful, to be identified by the autumn.
• Salt campaign - 3-cornered strategy working with industry, supermarkets and raising consumer awareness. Public impact has been good, follow-up activities planned for autumn.

Ms Unwin said that FSA’s communications work was generally very good with high public recognition. However, they now needed to listen more, particularly at the regional and community levels, for example to youth organisations and older peoples’ organisations.

The Chair thanked her for her comments and invited questions from participants.

A comment was raised about vegetarian labelling and how it would be helpful if it differentiated between different types of vegetarian diets, e.g. European vs Asian, as done by many airlines. Ms Unwin replied that she recognised this was an important issue. Labelling was determined at the EU level and a discussion on to how to handle this was taking place. Some retailers were taking action of their own accord.

A question was asked about how FSA would not only make contact with numerous and diverse community organisations but also get them to recognise that what FSA does is relevant? When trying to engage such groups in the regulatory agenda it would be important to show how it might impact on them, particularly those hard to reach groups who were often poorly resourced and might only be accessed at the local level.

Ms Unwin commented that FSA’s aim was to develop mechanisms for listening to a wide range of grassroots groups, for example, through staff at the regional level and through local authorities. At the Board level, options for reaching and listening to community groups were being considered, for example, via a restructured Consumer Committee.

Members welcomed FSA’s commitment to giving nutrition a higher priority in future. They also stressed the need for FSA to cooperate with other departments (health, education etc), the NHS and the devolved governments. Ms Unwin responded that they were doing so, for example, with DfES on how to include nutrition in the national curriculum. The School Meals Trust was another important initiative. The success of the Cooking Bus scheme meant that there were plans to expand this further. More learning between FSA in London and FSA Wales, Scotland and NI would also be worthwhile.

In response to a question on enforcement, and the Sudan 1 and other contaminants problems, Ms Unwin confirmed that a public enquiry was planned but postponed until the ongoing prosecutions were completed. A task force would be assessing what could be learnt from these incidents.

On advertising food to children, Ms Unwin confirmed that they were working with Ofcom on this and guidelines should be published in January 2007. Nutrient profiling was another issue where Ofcom would be involved.

To conclude, the Chair thanked Ms Unwin, on behalf of members. She said that Foodaware looked forward to ongoing work with FSA on these and other issues. One of Foodaware’s strengths was its access to grassroots consumers through its member organisations. She hoped this would prove useful in FSA’s efforts to engage further with consumers.

2.   Apologies for absence

It was noted that apologies would be included in the minutes.

3.   Minutes of the last meeting (CFG 10/05)

There were two amendments to the draft minutes, both on page 6:

• Item 5, 2nd line on p6, ‘BARBSE’ should read ‘Barbs’ (born after the reinforced ban)
• Item 6, 2nd line, should read ‘draft Veterinary Medicines Regulations (2005).’

4.   Matters arising

a)   Veterinary Medicines draft letter (CFG 17/05)

Barbara Saunders introduced this item. She said that she and John Verrall had recently attended a consultation meeting at the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) on the new draft Veterinary Medicines Regulations. Foodaware had sent a letter responding to the main consultation in early May (CFG 09/05 rev) and it had been one of 300 responses received. The key issues continued to be the advertising of veterinary medicines, postal sales, distribution arrangements (dispensing only by ‘suitably qualified persons’), record keeping and bee-keeping. Barbara and John were concerned that the VMD had not clarified its thinking sufficiently on these and felt that a follow-up letter would be useful. Members had the draft (CFG 17/05) and she invited comments on it.

After a short discussion on the advertising of veterinary medicines, how to control Internet advertising and sales, and the pros and cons of whether beekeeping should be subject to ‘lighter controls’, members approved the draft.

Action: Barbara Saunders to finalise and send letter to VMD.

b)   Veterinary Residues Committee

Susan Knox told members that Foodaware had been invited to send a representative as well as a representative of their organisations to the Veterinary Residues Committee open meeting to be held on Friday 7 October at Fishmongers Hall, London. It was noted that every effort should be made to ensure a presence at this meeting.

c)   Organisational issues

The Chair confirmed that the contract with FSA had been renewed for another year.

5.    UK Co-ordinator’s report and EU Update

UK Co-ordinator’s report

Lucy said that her report for the period May – July 2005 had been circulated on the list-serve earlier in the week. It summarised the policy-related work carried out since the last meeting. This included the completion and distribution of the following papers:

• Comments by Foodaware on Consumers with Food Allergies
  (CFG 07/05 rev)
• Letter to VMD on Draft Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2005
  (CFG 09/05 rev)
• Letter to Defra on possible changes to draft legislation in relations to ‘no test’ results (CFG 11/05)
• Comments by Foodaware on the replacement of the Over Thirty Months Rule with a system based on testing cattle for BSE in abattoirs
  (CFG 12/05)
• Foodaware comments on the ‘Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products – a draft national strategy’ issued by the Pesticides Safety Directorate (CFG 13/05 rev)

Work had started on a number of other papers that would be discussed under other agenda items.

The report also gave details of the wide range of stakeholder meetings at Foodaware had been represented during the last three months. Notes from these were circulated to members on the list-serve.

EU Update

The EU Update paper had been circulated prior to the meeting. Ann Davison gave some further details on the nutrition and health claims proposal that had recently been unanimously approved by the European Council. However, the European Parliament had hotly contested article 4 in its first reading. This article included the principle that the use of claims must be conditional on respecting the overall nutrient profile of the food. Foodaware and the European Economic and Social Committee strongly supported the inclusion of this article. Foodaware planned to write to MEPs before the Parliament’s second reading.

Action: FA to write to MEPs concerning article 4 of the health claims proposal.

There was also a discussion concerning food additives. Alma Williams told members that the Committee on Toxicity (COT) was in the process of reviewing specific additives. Also that the EU was amending its additives legislation in order to ban certain substances used in mini jelly cups and make the temporary ban on these products permanent. However, it was the jelly cups, rather than the additives that posed a risk and no current law existed to ban or control them. Another problem was the trend for so-called ‘toxic sweets’ that could cause corrosive burns. Again, the problem was not the content but how they were consumed. Members suggested that such products might successfully be controlled if the General Product Safety regulations could be applied.

1. Non-trusters: characterised by the low level of trust in all sources and especially independent ones.
2. Mixed trust: this type of consumer mainly distrusts food chain actors and trusts independent sources.
3. Trusters: characterised by trusting all sources of information, even if with different intensity, and particularly food chain actors, while trusting media sources less.

• The need to stress FSA's commitment to putting the consumer first and that where consultation indicates that there is a balance to be struck, the FSA should ensure the consumer view is given appropriate weight.
• The paper should also call for FSA to provide a clear basis for legislation, information and guidance that industry and regulatory bodies can understand, implement and enforce and clarity about the protection the public can expect.
• The comments on enforcement in the first section should be elaborated further and the reference to the Hampton report explained.
• The paragraphs on Board meetings, stakeholder meetings and engaging 'hard to hear' groups should be expanded and clarified. The need for more feedback from consultations and greater transparency throughout the process should also be stressed.

• Proposed changes to instructions to Meat Hygiene Service Authorised Officers to implement changes in the Food Hygiene Regulations and,
• Draft Guide to food safety and other regulations for the meat industry