The Food Standards Agency would be stripped of all responsibility for diet and nutrition strategy under a Conservative government, the shadow health secretary has revealed.
Speaking to The Grocer, Andrew Lansley said the FSA would be scaled back to focus purely on food safety, with diet and nutrition policy folding into a new Department for Public Health. The move would take the FSA away from controversial areas such as nutritional labelling, nutrient profiling and reformulation.
The FSA was "a conflicting voice in government" and bringing diet and nutrition in-house would achieve "one central partnership between government and industry", said Lansley.
He was especially critical of the FSA's marriage to the front-of-pack traffic light-style nutritional labelling scheme, which he claimed was "based on the concept there is good and bad food rather than good diet".
"I've certainly had difficulties about the way the FSA has gone about front-of-pack nutritional labelling, [and] more generally, that it operates not just as an independent voice within government but sometimes as a conflicting voice," said Lansley. "That's no good to me. If I'm looking for a department with a public health strategy, I would expect government to be properly coordinated."
The FSA also came under attack for the crude tone of some of its reformulation campaigns, particularly around salt and satfats. The public health messages were "unhelpful", Lansley said. "In a sense the FSA has been making policy decisions based not upon working with behaviour change but actually just trying to bash people about good and bad food," he said. A Conservative public health policy would focus on a greater understanding of behavioural change rather than "trying to combat human behaviour".
Under a Tory regime, the FSA would be a non-ministerial government department reporting directly to Defra. Lansley praised the "strong reputation" the FSA had built for its work on food safety and said he did not plan to tamper with this area.
Industry sources said the FSA had been restructuring since Lord Rooker took over as chair in 2009 in anticipation of the Tories taking power. The board has completed the merger of the Meat Hygiene Service with the agency, establishing a new operations group to take on the responsibilities of the MHS from 1 April.
See next week's issue for more exclusive insights from our interview with the shadow health secretary, or for the full transcript click here.
Rein in the FSA.. and ban below-cost booze
Andrew Lansley confirmed a Tory government would ban supermarkets from selling alcohol at below-cost price.
However, they would need to find a way to take into account EU law when banning below-cost selling by creating "a safe haven under competition law".
Lansley also confirmed plans to ramp up the tax on drinks contributing to alcohol abuse such as super-strength beers and ciders as well as alcopops.
Speaking to The Grocer, Andrew Lansley said the FSA would be scaled back to focus purely on food safety, with diet and nutrition policy folding into a new Department for Public Health. The move would take the FSA away from controversial areas such as nutritional labelling, nutrient profiling and reformulation.
The FSA was "a conflicting voice in government" and bringing diet and nutrition in-house would achieve "one central partnership between government and industry", said Lansley.
He was especially critical of the FSA's marriage to the front-of-pack traffic light-style nutritional labelling scheme, which he claimed was "based on the concept there is good and bad food rather than good diet".
"I've certainly had difficulties about the way the FSA has gone about front-of-pack nutritional labelling, [and] more generally, that it operates not just as an independent voice within government but sometimes as a conflicting voice," said Lansley. "That's no good to me. If I'm looking for a department with a public health strategy, I would expect government to be properly coordinated."
The FSA also came under attack for the crude tone of some of its reformulation campaigns, particularly around salt and satfats. The public health messages were "unhelpful", Lansley said. "In a sense the FSA has been making policy decisions based not upon working with behaviour change but actually just trying to bash people about good and bad food," he said. A Conservative public health policy would focus on a greater understanding of behavioural change rather than "trying to combat human behaviour".
Under a Tory regime, the FSA would be a non-ministerial government department reporting directly to Defra. Lansley praised the "strong reputation" the FSA had built for its work on food safety and said he did not plan to tamper with this area.
Industry sources said the FSA had been restructuring since Lord Rooker took over as chair in 2009 in anticipation of the Tories taking power. The board has completed the merger of the Meat Hygiene Service with the agency, establishing a new operations group to take on the responsibilities of the MHS from 1 April.
See next week's issue for more exclusive insights from our interview with the shadow health secretary, or for the full transcript click here.
Rein in the FSA.. and ban below-cost booze
Andrew Lansley confirmed a Tory government would ban supermarkets from selling alcohol at below-cost price.
However, they would need to find a way to take into account EU law when banning below-cost selling by creating "a safe haven under competition law".
Lansley also confirmed plans to ramp up the tax on drinks contributing to alcohol abuse such as super-strength beers and ciders as well as alcopops.
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