The rumours circulating around the future of the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) were made official on July 20, 2010 with a Prime Minister’s ministerial statement. The FSA is to remain as a non-ministerial department responsible for food safety, reporting to Parliament through Health ministers, although its mandate is to be seriously reduced. Previous responsibilities of the FSA are to be relocated, with food labelling and food composition policy, “where not related to food safety”, to become the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and nutrition policy will become the responsibility of the Secretary of State for  Health.

While this restructuring is being justified by the necessity for budget cuts it is difficult to neglect the implications of the coalition government’s restructuring actions in the larger arena of food power. Among other issues, the FSA facilitated the debate over novel and GM foods in the UK. This restructure has been seen by some, including the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, as a facilitation to grant greater freedom to the big business interests of the food industry, essentially, taking the teeth away from the watchdog.

Here are a collection of links on this restructuring:

Prime Minister’s Written Ministerial Statement

FSA – Changes to the Food Standards Agency

Tim Lang, Guardian editorial – Food Standards Agency: What a Carve up

New Statesman editorial – including the view of Shadow Secretary, Andy Burnham