Monitoring, planning for and preventing incidents
To make sure it learns from past incidents and mistakes are not repeated, the Agency reviews how it handles incidents so it can be as prepared as possible to anticipate and deal with emerging and re-emerging risks. As part of its incident prevention strategy, the Agency monitors food and feed safety patterns across the UK and provides guidance and workshops to industry.
The Agency's Incident prevention strategy plan to 2010 can be found at the link below.
About incident prevention
Incidents undermine consumer confidence on food safety, they are costly to national economies, and they contribute to the erosion of trust between consumers, regulators and the food industry. Responding to these incidents can be very time consuming, both for risk assessors and risk managers. It is in everyone’s interests to address the underlying causes of food incidents.
The ability to anticipate new threats to food safety is a key element in enhancing the way the food industry and official bodies are able to prevent incidents or react quickly to them if they do occur. Several incidents that have occurred have shown the need to develop early warning mechanisms to alert food authorities and to the food industry to potential problems.
Related links
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How to prevent an incident
Businesses of all sizes must take reasonable precautions to make sure the produce and food they supply meets safety requirements. Guidance on how to prevent a food or feed incident is available for farmers, manufacturers, caterers, retailers and others.
Reviews and annual reports
Incident reviews and annual reports on food safety incidents.
Events, projects and initiatives
The Agency carries out a wide range of activities aimed at preventing, identifying, managing and responding to incidents better. These activities include workshops targeted at industry, an international workshop focused on identifying emerging risks earlier, and an incident prevention strategy plan.
Statistics and analysis
The Agency has developed a range of systems to improve its reporting, recording and review processes for food incidents. The Agency's online report facility and incidents database, launched in July 2005, provides a means to analyse the full range of incidents data held by the Agency.
Information sharing and dissemination
A large amount of work takes place in Europe and internationally to share and disseminate information to facilitate incident prevention. A number of online networks and forums are available to exchange information, identify emerging risks and educate.
Emergency planning
The Food Standards Agency's Emergency Planning Branch is dedicated to preparing contingency plans for food safety emergencies and exercising those plans.
Marine oil and chemical spills
The Food Standards Agency is participating in a cross government initiative set up to provide a more integrated and robust approach to chemical and oil spills in the marine and coastal environment.