Agenda item

Councillor Bryan Davies (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Democratic Services, Policy, Performance and People and Organisation) presented the report on behalf of Councillor Matthew Vaux (Cabinet Member for Partnerships, Housing, Legal and Governance and Public Protection). The regulatory controls related to food and feed were critical to ensure the safety of food, and the integrity of the food chain from farm to fork. It was important that regulatory controls were consistently applied across the whole of the UK, to ensure there was no breakdown in standards in the food chain that could affect the integrity and confidence of consumers in the food they consumed. The feed chain integrity was critical not only to animal welfare but also to avoid any harmful residues in feed that may affect any animal entering the human food chain.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) published Codes of Practice that regulated how local authorities delivered their food and feed services. This required that all local authorities were sufficiently resourced to inspect food and feed businesses at regular intervals according to the risk to health they posed. The authority was required to produce a Service Plan, to demonstrate how the food and feed requirements were delivered and adequately resourced on an annual basis. This included a requirement that the Service Plan was taken through the democratic process.

The Service Plan provided an outline of the food and feed inspection requirements for 2023/2024. This year represented a significant transition to “dual” inspections, where both food hygiene and food standards were combined into a single inspection. The Public Protection Officers have undertaken significant training and assessment to become competent to undertake these dual inspections in accordance with the FSA CoP standards. The desirable outcome of dual inspections was that it reduced the inspection burden on food businesses and increased efficiency for the authority in avoiding two separate visits. A review of resources in the Service Plan found, with the additional funding, that the service should be sufficiently resourced to deliver the food and feed programme this year. However, this was dependent on the Public Protection Officers being able to deliver their inspection allocation. Other service demands and ill-health etc. could impact their ability to complete the programme. These officers were required to work across the whole of Public Protection, therefore any conflicting public health priorities may have an adverse impact.

Carwen Evans, Corporate Manager: Public Protection provided an overview of the Food and Feed Service Plan and the current and future challenges in delivering the statutory service. Food law enforcement was a shared function carried out by officers of the Environmental Health and Trading Standards teams, collectively recognised within the Authority as “Public Protection”. A range of functions were undertaken by the Food and Feed Service such as food premises registration, enforcement activities and the investigation of suspected and confirmed cases of communicable disease.

The following information was presented: 

·       The demand on the food and feed service varied from year to year as premises opened and closed.

·       As of 31.08.2023, 1210 registered food businesses existed in Ceredigion and 19 premises were approved under Regulation EC No. 853/2004 and as of 01.04.2023, there were 1380 feed businesses subject to regulatory controls in Ceredigion.

·       The total number of programmed food hygiene inspections of high-risk premises targeted to be carried out during 2023/24 was 252.

·       Approximately 80 revisits to non-broadly compliant premises and 50 requests for re-inspection under the FHRS (non-programmed inspections).

·       10-12 new businesses started trading in Ceredigion each month. New food establishments that came to the attention of the Food Authority for the first time must be subject to an initial inspection from a food hygiene and food standards perspective within 28 days of registering with the Authority. As of August 2023, a backlog of 155 premises awaited food hygiene inspection and 328 premises awaited food standards inspection. A food specialist had been contracted to support this work.

·       188 premises were due feed interventions in 2023/24 and this was funded by the FSA.

Carwen Evans explained that there were adequate resources to deliver the statutory function for 2023/24 provided there were no emergencies or major investigatory work. As for 2024/25, given the significant increase in inspections due, the service may be required to seek additional funding for contractors to support with the work.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions which were answered by Officers present and Councillor Bryan Davies. The main points raised were as follows:

·       As farmers were under significant pressure, it was suggested that there should be more collaboration between bodies such as the local authority, DEFRA and FAWL. It was noted that inspection by the local authority (as the enforcement body) was not as extensive for farmers who were members of accredited schemes such as Farm Assured Welsh Livestock (FAWL), as they were already subject to checks.

·       There was a full cost recovery for the local authority when they conducted feed inspections as part of the regional hygiene inspection programme.

·       If the local authority had a lack of officers to undertake the work, neighbouring local authorities were able to provide support, especially with animal feed, however, this had not yet been required.

·       All businesses that prepared and sold food were required to register with the local authority before doing so, however, this was not always the case.

Following questions by the Committee Members, it was agreed to receive the report and recommend to the Cabinet the approval of the Food and Feed Service Plan 2023-24.