FSA to use 'intelligent systems' to manage food safety

These so-called “intelligent systems” will make use of the national intelligence model used by the UK police force and others used by law enforcement agencies in the US, said FSA higher scientific officer, Dr Philip Randles.

“This is a system which we have purchased and are using as a central database,” he said.

It will help the FSA set priorities for incident risk management.

“ 90% of cases will probably not have enough information.

So we will target our surveillance projects to generate more information about the risks.”

Randles, who is responsible for emerging risks and horizon-scanning at the FSA, told delegates at Leatherhead Food Research’s food safety conference last week that the use of data assessment and intelligence gathering, together with forensic analysis, which forms part of the Agency’s incident prevention strategy, would underpin its approach going forward.

It’s all about identifying trends, he said.

As an example, he cited the growing incidence of physical contamination with white hard plastic.

“Is that telling us something?”

he asked.

However, microbiological contamination is probably the fastest increasing area of contamination, while environmental contamination was the fastest decreasing trend, he added.

The FSA currently spends £20–25m a year on research and surveys, reported Randles, and of the 1,300 to 1,400 incidents it has to deal with each year, 65-70% originate from overseas contamination.

“So we have to look not just at the UK food chain, but the global food chain.”

The work will focus on the top 16 global food supply chains, said Randles, and make use of the FSA’s own surveillance programmes too, as well as other science and evidence-based research.

Randles accepted that the Agency had to learn from experience and target its efforts better in the future.

“When it comes down to brass tacks, Sudan 1 was probably not as severe as we thought it to be,” he said.