Non-EU imports database essential for food safety - FSA
The study, which has drawn on experience gained from auditing local authority imported food services,suggests that the current database is incomplete and inaccurate, with some food importers and businesses not always identified within the records.
The database, which is run by officials from local authorities, should ensure the food hygiene and standards of imported foods from non-EU countries “in order to protect public health”.
The audit was able to identify a lack of routine, systematic checks at smaller ports, enhanced remote transit sheds (ERTS) and international rail terminals.
It also identified core service areas critical to maintaining effective service provision and improving imported food controls.
Higher risk foods
The report said: “Local authorities with a point of entry should be aware of the volume and nature of foods entering the port.”
“An up to date and accurate database would assist in targeting resources at higher risk imported food premises.”
Further weaknesses were recognised in methods used to identify food imports from non-EU countries.
“It is important to be aware that food businesses that may have been identified on the database as lower risk may be importing higher risk foods. Reasonable steps should be taken to access the legality of imported food from non-EU countries and effective action taken on non-compliance in order to protect public health,” added the study.
Core improvements
The report identified three core areas for maintaining effective service and improving imported food controls: identification of imported foods, the implementation of effective controls, and service planning, management and support.
In each of these three areas, fundamental proposals were made to identify and prioritise imported foods from non-EU countries that are potentially higher risk.
“Complete, up-to-date, accurate and reliable databases of local food businesses, including points of entry for imported food, are essential to enable managers to know of all the relevant businesses located in their area and to provide the basis for comprehensive risk-based inspection and intervention programmes.”
A spate of recent foodborne contaminations has resulted in reduced confidence in imported goods, particularly those from outside the EU.
An E.coli outbreak earlier this year, which killed 49 people in Germany, was attributed to imported beansprouts.
