FOOD Standards Scotland (FSS) has launched an eight-week consultation on the introduction of new food compliance notices, which are designed to help enforcement officers deal with suspected breaches of rules, such as incorrect or fraudulent product labelling.
Local authority food enforcement officers are said to currently have ‘limited’ powers in the event of any suspected food standards regulation breach, other than to submit a report to the Procurator Fiscal or serve a Seizure and Detention notice to remove potentially harmful or non-compliant products.
Raymond Pang, FSS senior enforcement manager, said those processes can often be ‘time-consuming, unduly damaging to the businesses involved, and are not proportionate to what can often be issues as simple as unintentional labelling breaches’.
He explained, “We feel a report should only go to the Procurator Fiscal, in cases of serious breaches, such as fraud or consistent non-compliance of food standards regulations. This proposed notice will highlight the regulation that might have been breached, what a business has to do to comply, and when, before any action is taken.
“As a result, they will give authorised enforcement officers the option of taking a more graduated, step-by-step approach to enforcement. This is a proposed new system of improvement, too, to work alongside businesses to ensure food standards are adhered to.”
FSS is seeking the views of local authority enforcement officers who inspect food businesses, food businesses across sectors such as manufacturing, packaging and labelling of food products, catering, and retailers, and consumers.
