Open Board meeting 17 May 2007

Salt campaign launch
Chair Deirdre Hutton reported on the launch of the third phase of the public awareness campaign. The ‘Full of it’ campaign focused on informing consumers that 75% of the salt they eat is already in everyday foods and they should check the labels and choose options lower in salt.

The results from the research on campaign effectiveness would be received soon, and this would enable a full assessment of the success of the campaign. Details of this would be provided to Board members.

One of the very pleasing aspects of this particular phase of the salt campaign was the extent of industry support, which included Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s, the Co-op, Asda, Tesco and Nestlé, who ran partnership activities in conjunction with the Agency’s work.

The Chair reported that the Agency is also working on bespoke projects with various organisations including Diabetes UK, the Food Commission and the British Heart Foundation. A number of other local authorities had also taken on the Agency’s campaign messages.

She concluded that the idea of spreading the message much more broadly than the Agency could have budgeted for had been very successful. The Chair looked forward to seeing the results of this activity.

LACORS Way Ahead Conference
The Chair reported that she attended and spoke at this event, which was very important in terms of local authorities and enforcement work.

The signing of the ‘Statement of Intent’ between the FSA and local government representative bodies from all four UK countries had been highlighted.

The statement was an important breakthrough in the Agency’s relationship with local authorities, based on partnership and ‘critical friendship’, said the Chair. Each recognised mutual obligations.

It was a good thing to get the statement signed and have the chance to say how much the Agency values what local authorities do for us she added.

Peter Rogers of the Rogers’ Review spoke powerfully about the five national priorities: air quality, alcohol licensing, hygiene and food businesses, improving health in the work place and fair trading.

The importance of food had been recognised in the Rogers’ Review. The Chair was pleased that ‘hygiene and food businesses’ was included. The ‘fair trading’ priority would also deal with fraud labelling issues which were a cause for concern.

Joint conference: ‘Dietary Health: the evidence for change’
The Chair reported on her attendance at a joint conference in Ireland organised by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, The Food Safety Promotion Board (a cross border body) and the FSA Northern Ireland.

ASBAH (Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus) meeting
The Chair, along with Deputy Chair Ian Reynolds, met with Andrew Russell and Dr Roger Bayston (Chair of ASBAH’s advisory committee) to discuss the issue of folic acid fortification. (The body represents the views and interests of those with spina bifida).

They explained the Board’s desire to hold the discussion in the public domain, but were happy to hear what the Association had to say.

The Association was also informed about the factual briefing session held for Board members in April. A note of that briefing session had been published on the website, along with the paper and supplementary reports said the Chair.