Minutes of Food Safety Sub Committee: 27 September 2007

Present
Craig Brown – South Lanarkshire Council, West of Scotland Liaison Group (Chair)
Frank Feechan – Dundee Council, East of Scotland Liaison Group
Craig Smith – West Lothian Council, Lothian & Borders Liaison Group
Rod House – Health Protection Scotland
Catherine Reilly - North Ayrshire Council, West of Scotland Liaison Group

Apologies
Mark Duncan – Head of Quality, MacPhie of Glenbervie (Scottish Food & Drink Federation)
James McLennan – Moray Council, North of Scotland Liaison Group
Mary Lawton – Scottish Consumer Council
Andrew Morrison – Food Standards Agency Scotland (FSAS)

Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Matters arising
Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS)
Craig Brown has been attending steering group meetings. FSA is looking to evaluate similar schemes on a UK-wide basis. London Olympics scheme is going to be too late to be included. Therefore only the Scottish and Midlands scheme will be part of the evaluation. It is hoped that a report will be prepared by July 2008. Roadshows are being carried out in pilot areas in Scotland. An evaluation of the FHIS will be carried out in November for reporting to the group in December. Hoping to encourage other local authority participation. Unlikely to be mandatory as this would require legislation.

Approved premises working group
Craig Smith reported that Lothian and Borders were in favour of extending their approved premises group to other local authority contacts. It would be good for getting opinions and sharing experiences of applying legislation and so on to these businesses.
Action: Group members to go back to liaison groups to gather list of names of officers involved in approved establishments, email contacts, and types of approved establishments being dealt with. This can then be compiled by FSSG and circulated back through liaison groups.

Primary production
Craig Smith reported that there had been no meeting of the primary production enforcement working group since earlier in the year. He had spoken to Jacqui Bunyan at the FSAS who was taking on the co-ordination of this matter. All local authorities should have received a data sharing protocol agreement for signing on behalf of environmental health and trading standards.

Craig Brown gave an update from the SFELC Meeting – June 2007

Food Law Scotland
There has been no real progress in producing this document due to work demands at FSAS.

HACCP Working Group
The group has been reconvened to look at allergen supplement for Cooksafe/Retailsafe manuals. Billy Hamilton is chairing the group.

Revision of Code of Practice
The Food Safety Sub-Group is to get involved in the revision as the working group. Craig Brown has been having discussions with Andrew Morrison, and has agreed to part time secondment to FSAS to help draft Scottish version. The review is mainly looking at CLAE/Hampton concerns. English version has a target date of April 2008 for implementation and it is hoped to have Scottish version meeting similar time frame.

Frank Feechan is to consider his involvement or other representative from East of Scotland group. Craig Brown to forward appropriate information to Frank Feechan for consideration.

A consultation is to be circulated through the group generally by email and meetings will be arranged if required.

Continuning Professional Development (CPD) review
Questionnaire responses have been collated into a report by Craig Brown. Only 21 responses have been received and Craig Brown would have liked more. Before finalising the report Craig Brown would like non-responding authorities chased up.
Action: Group members to look at basis of report and feedback any discussion issues to Craig Brown. Comments on discussion issues by 22 October. Also to chase up within liaison group non-responding authorities.

Internal monitoring
Craig Brown is still awaiting some responses. He will circulate a list for members to chase up liaison group contacts. Craig Brown will produce a more detailed version of the report for discussion prior to next meeting of the FSSG in November.
Action: Group to identify those not responding and request a response to Craig Brown.

East of Scotland Liaison Group
Frank Feechan was new representative for the group. He raised a concern regarding the Meat Hygien Service (MHS) role in outbreak.

Lothian & Borders Liaison Group
Guidance on inspection of childminders is being looked into by FSAS. Edinburgh are discussing the matter with them.

The group has run training sessions on allergen labelling etc. for enforcement officers. Very useful.
The group is producing guidance for sandwich bars, and other food businesses, following a survey indicating poor microbiological quality of sandwich fillings and other foodstuffs. Will be agreed then forwarded to sub groups for consideration.

North of Scotland Liaison Group
No meeting had taken place to report on.

West of Scotland Liaison Group
The group had received a presentation on Healthy Living Awards by Dr Claire Brown.

The group has been looking at wording of notices for Article 5 compliance. Various versions are available but none have been tested in court yet.

The group has held allergen training courses for officers.

Various group members have been subject to audit.

The group has repeated a survey looking at fat and salt content of meals purchased as alternatives to school meals. Results similar to previous survey showing high levels of both.

FSA
No report.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS)
Food Surveillance System update training was held in July. Website will hopefully be ready for launch in November. Looking at including standard reports including FSA return.

HPS is reviewing the E coli task force report. Incidence is still rising. There is a need to establish if recommendations are correct and if they are being applied or not.

As a result of the latest version of international health regulations HPS are involved in port health group to look at Scotland’s role and links with the rest of the UK.

HSE is looking for an environmental health officer on a three year secondment to develop food safety protocols for offshore facilities.

Scottish Consumer Council
No report.

Industry update
No report.

Legislation/Codes of Practice
Guidance on Article 5 Compliance still on hold pending outcome of EU consultation.

Current consultations
English version of code of practice. Craig Brown has circulated by email

Court cases – feedback from members
No Reports.

Correspondence
None.

Matters for referral to SFELC
CPD report and internal monitoring report for November.

Matters for referral back to Liaison Groups
Approved premises officers contact list.

Debate on extending remedial action notices to non – approved establishments. See 'any other business' item below.

Earlier in the meeting the issue of remedial action notices (RANS) had been raised. The FSA iseen to get feedback from enforcement officers on whether these should be extended to other premises. The general feeling in the group was that this would be a positive step. It was agreed that the best way to take this forward and raise the matter appropriately with FSA would be through SFELC. This would require the discussion to be started at liaison group level and proceed through sub-group to SFELC.
Action: Group to refer discussion to liaison groups.

Date of Next Meeting
Monday 5 November, 2007 – East Kilbride.