Minutes of Food Standards Sub Committee Meeting: 24 July 2008

Attendees

George Mair (West of Scotland Food Liaison Group)
Paul Bradley (Lothian and Borders Food Liaison Group) (Chair)
Jim Dixon (Perth and Kinross Council)
Jacqui McElhiney (Senior Scientific Advisor, FSA Scotland)
Catherine Ferro (FSA Scotland) (Secretariat)
Tom Reid (Consultant Microbiologist, Aberdeen)
Lynn Cree (Environmental Health Advisor, Health Protection Scotland)
Stuart Joyce (Public Analyst, Glasgow Scientific Services)

Welcome and apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies had been received from the following members:

Andrew Mackie (Public Analyst, Edinburgh)
Mary Lawton (Scottish Consumer Council)
John Sleith (East of Scotland Food Liaison Group)
Jane Couper (Tayside Scientific Services)
John Bell (North of Scotland Food Liaison Group)

The Chair informed the committee that John Sleith was to replace Jervis Browne as the East of Scotland Food Liaison Group representative, and acknowledged Jervis's efforts during his time on the committee.

Minutes of previous meeting held on 22 May 2008

The minutes were agreed as a true record.

Matters Arising

From 24 July 2008

Paul Bradley to write the protocol for the new chemical (SF20) survey. The protocol was circulated and the committee made no comments.

Jacqui McElhiney to provide Tom Reid with further information on the recent Food Standards Agency Scotland meeting on bottled waters.
This was ongoing and was with the FSAS policy branch.

All members to forward comments on SF11 & SF16 to Paul Bradley by mid-August 2008.

Food Liaison Groups (FLGs) to advise SFELC of their survey reports after these had been discussed at FSSC.
The FSSC Chair to continue to relay the FLG survey reports to SFELC.

Paul Bradley to draft a paper on standards compliance in the catering trade for submission to SFELC.

From 22 May 2008

All members to submit their top five Food Surveillance System (FSS) queries to Paul.
This was an ongoing action. There had been a query on imported foods.

Jacqui McElhiney to circulate the 2007 FSS sampling data to the committee.
This was currently being considered by the FSS research working group

All other action points completed.

From 13 March 2008

Paul Bradley to contact Trading Standards Institute (TSI) to discuss costings for 'Environmental Health only' use.

Lynn Cree updated the Committee on the last RWG meeting which had taken place on 30 May in Pullar House. She gave details of the Group's new members, and outlined the first project to be undertaken by the Group at its next meeting in August. This was to examine the 2007 chemical data on the FSS. There had also been a demonstration of the new FSS website, which includes a new webpage that generates a report output for each survey, making survey data more easily accessible.

Lynn Cree asked FSS users on the Committee to report any errors or problems that they come across.

A discussion on the coding of survey samples followed, and the importance of correctly coding data when it was entered into the database was emphasised. It was agreed that this was essential to ensure that survey reports could be easily drafted.

The Committee discussed difficulties in the categorisation of food samples and certain fields that could be open to interpretation, such as 'surveillance/monitoring', and 'raw', 'processed' and 'ready-to-eat'. Lynn Cree pointed out that the RWG were already considering the removal of the surveillance/monitoring fields and that the suggestions made would be submitted to the FSS strategic group for comment and approval.

Lynn Cree then gave an update on progress with the FSS UK project. She indicated that Version 5 of FSSnet was now available to users, and that the FSS iNet pilot had started successfully. She also informed the group that the Health Protection Agency should have a pilot running by the same time the following year.

The survey programme was discussed and an updated table drawn up. The following action points were agreed:
Action: Paul Bradley to write the protocol for the new chemical (SF20) survey.
Action: Andrew Mackie to liaise with Lothian and Borders Food Liaison Group and update the committee on the microbiological (SF21) survey.
Action: Jacqui McElhiney to provide Tom Reid with further information on the recent Agency meeting on bottled waters.
Action: Paul Bradley to circulate the protocol on survey LS22.
Action: All members to forward any comments on SF11 & 16 to Paul Bradley by mid-August 2008.
Action: Paul Bradley to amend and re-circulate the SF11&16 report.
Action: It was agreed that, in future, individual FLGs would advise SFELC of their survey reports after they had been discussed at FSSC.
Action: The WS23 (colours in takeaway foods) report was noted. Stuart Joyce would arrange for the report to be presented by West of Scotland FLG at SFELC.
Action: Tom Reid to respond to the LACORS request for 2009/10 survey ideas.

Paul Bradley reported that there had been no meeting of FSCWG since the last Food Standards meeting.

No issues were raised by the FLGs.

Discussion of this topic was deferred to be taken with topics raised under 'Any other business'.

The revised Code of Practice and Practice Guidance were still awaited. Once these had been issued FSSC will identify any relevant areas of work.

Number of days hanging between slaughter and mincing of meat.
In response to a question from George Mair at the previous meeting, Jacqui McElhiney reminded the Committee that regulatory requirements for the hanging of meat prior to mincing applied only to approved premises, and did not therefore apply to small butchers.

Improving the profile of the SFELC and its sub-committees.
Jim Dixon informed the committee that SFELC had agreed with his recommendations and that Jim Thomson of FSA Scotland had confirmed that a budget facility within FSA Scotland was available for a designated SFELC website.

The sale of Witch as Sole
Action: Catherine Ferro would circulate the minutes of the March 2008 meeting.

Labelling of Meat Products by Caterers
Jacqui McElhiney highlighted recent correspondence from Inverclyde Council which drew attention to the findings of a previous West of Scotland survey (WS21) that had identified labelling offences by manufacturers, caterers and retailers in the sale of certain meat products. It was noted that FSSC had previously taken this survey report to SFELC and that it had been recommended that the West of Scotland FLG should develop guidance on this issue.

The Committee agreed that there was a need to engage with caterers to resolve this issue. Stuart Joyce said that the problem may be due in part to the lack of clarity in the current definition for meat, and that it was often difficult to determine whether meat was fresh meat or mechanically recovered meat. This was further complicated when samples were not accompanied by their packaging, making it difficult for laboratories to compare the product with an ingredients list. Stuart Joyce referred to a training course that had been run by Leatherhead and which provided training in this area. Mark Woolfe from FSA had been involved in this and Stuart Joyce asked Jacqui McElhiney if she could contact Mark for further guidance.
Action: Jacqui McElhiney to inform Inverclyde Council that this issue has been flagged up by the FSSC and that it would be raised again with SFELC under an FSSC initiative to improve food standards in the catering trade. It was proposed that this initiative would also cover continuing problems such as Monosodium Glutamate in Chinese foods and colours in Indian meals, following the outcomes of recent surveys in these areas.
Action: Stuart Joyce to forward Jacqui McElhiney the email, copying in Mark Woolfe.
Action: Paul Bradley to draft a paper on standards compliance in the catering trade for submission to SFELC.

Non pre-packed mince
Paul Bradley had received a letter from FSA Scotland on the labelling of mince at point-of-sale to ensure that it is cooked properly. There was some debate on which labelling provision would require this for non pre-packed mince. It was agreed that the letter should be circulated and that the matter be discussed further at the next FSSC meeting.
Action: Paul Bradley to forward the letter to the committee.

The next meeting is to be held at 10.30 on 18 September 2008 at Pullar House, Perth.