Food: Fraud

(asked on 10th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff were dedicated to food authenticity in (a) the Food Standards Agency and (b) her Department in each year from 2008 to date; and how much those bodies spent on food authenticity in those years.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 15th October 2014

In 2010, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) had 12 full time staff working in its Food Standards and Authenticity branch, which included food composition and standards as well as authenticity.

In the years 2008-2010, the FSA had between 3.5 and 4 staff members working solely on its Food Authenticity Research Programme, although other areas of authenticity-related policy work were carried out across the Standards branch.

The FSA has estimated that authenticity work associated with the food authenticity research programme had an annual research budget of around:

2008/09

2009/10

2010/11

£800,000

£700,000

£600,000

In 2010 22.6 full time equivalents (FTEs) were transferred to Defra under the Machinery of Government Changes.

Thirteen of these officials work wholly or partly on aspects of food authenticity. This includes work on food composition and standards, food labelling and related science, including developing methodologies for detecting food authenticity.

Three members of staff are dedicated to the Food Authenticity Research Programme in Defra, with additional support from an experienced external programme advisor.

The budget allocation for the Food Authenticity Research Programme transferred to Defra for 2011/12 onwards was £500,000 per year. This budget has been protected through re-prioritisation within Defra’s overall food science programme and actual spend on food authenticity in each of the last two years has been above this level, rising to £660,000 in 2013/14.

Defra works closely with the FSA which has responsibility for surveillance and enforcement. The FSA also makes available funds to Local Authorities as part of the National Co-ordinated Sampling Plan. These funds are not exclusively used for authenticity work, but a significant proportion funds authenticity testing. The funds allocated to the National Co-ordinated Sampling Plan were as follows:

2008/09

2009/10

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

£900,000

£900,000

£900,000

£1.6 Million

£1.6 Million

£2.2 Million

Reticulating Splines