Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with international partners to help reduce the presence of harmful contaminants in international food production.

The United Kingdom works closely with international partners through the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the joint Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the World Health Organisation programme to reduce harmful contaminants in the global food supply. The Food Standards Agency is an active member of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, contributing to the development of science- and risk-based international standards, guidelines, and codes of practice.

The UK chaired the revision of the Codex Principles of Food Hygiene and continues to play a leading role in international work on reducing contaminants, including co-chairing Codes of Practice on lead, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and ochratoxin A.