Welsh Food Advisory Committee Director's Report – 4 November 2025

1. Summary

 

1.1 This report provides: 

• a link to the paper introduced by the Chief Executive at the last Board meeting, held on 17 September 2025; and 

• a summary of senior engagement across the UK and International Affairs (UKIA) Directorate; and  

• an overview of developments and matters of interest to WFAC relating to Wales.   

 

1.2 Members of the committee are invited to:  

• note the update 

• invite the Directors to expand on any issues for further discussion 

 

2. Chief Executive’s Report to the Board 

2.1 This is the latest Chief Executive’s Report presented to the September Board meeting. 

 

3. Overview from the Director of UK and International Affairs (UKIA) 

3.1 This section provides an overview of some of the key work undertaken by the Director of UKIA, Anjali Juneja since the last report in July. 

3.2 The FSA continues to work across Government to carefully consider and understand the public health implications on food and feed of a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU. While the UK Government will be negotiating the deal on behalf of the UK, we are supporting its efforts to work on a four-country basis and will engage closely with government departments across the UK.  

3.3 The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced six new appointments to the FSA Board, one being the previous Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Sir Frank Atherton. They attended the September FSA Board in Belfast. 

Engaging with Welsh Government  

3.4 I have continued to work closely with Welsh Government colleagues to support our Spending Review bid and budget planning in Wales. Our discussions have also focused on key strategic areas including market authorisations, Operation Pegasus, and the ongoing FSA Review, all of which are further detailed in this report. This engagement has helped to ensure alignment on priorities and a clearer understanding of the Welsh Government’s expectations in these areas, which will inform our approach and strengthen our position in forthcoming planning.  

3.5 At Ministerial level, the Chair of the Board, WFAC Chair and I recently met with the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Sarah Murphy MS, to discuss key priorities for the next six months ahead of the Senedd elections in May. Amongst other things, the meeting focused on supporting local authorities, progressing the review of the FSA in Wales and SPS issues of shared interest. The Minister welcomed the FSA’s continued engagement and reaffirmed the importance of close collaboration to ensure Welsh priorities are reflected in future planning and delivery. 

 

4. Update from the Director for FSA in Wales 

4.1 Since the WFAC’s last themed meeting in July, we have been involved in the following strategic engagement activities: 

• We facilitated a full day of engagement for our Chair, Deputy Chair and Chair of WFAC at this year’s Royal Welsh Agricultural Show, providing valuable opportunities to engage with a wide range of stakeholders including Ministers, NFU Cymru and the Future Generations Commissioner. These conversations helped strengthen relationships, raise awareness of our priorities, and identify areas for future collaboration. 

• During the first week of August, we attended the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham with our modular stand providing information and advice to consumers on the work of the FSA. Thank you to the dedicated volunteers from across the FSA, including WFAC member John Williams, who provided a wide range of valuable advice and information during the event, helping to raise awareness and deepen public understanding of the FSA’s work. We succeeded in engaging with over 1500 members of the public, and took away numerous opportunities to further our consumer engagement. 

• In September, members of the leadership team in Wales headed to the Senedd for Y Farchnad – an informal event designed to spark meaningful conversations with Members of the Senedd (MSs). Sponsored by MS Samuel Kurtz, our stand drew interest from across the political spectrum, with particular enthusiasm for the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme and its role in helping consumers make informed choices. The format allowed for deeper, more candid discussions, giving us valuable insight into MSs’ priorities and concerns. Planning is already underway for our next appearance in February – a timely opportunity to engage ahead of the upcoming election. 

• September also saw Sarah Aza and I brief Cabinet Members for Community Safety and Public Health – via a WLGA-organised session – on the FSA’s role in Wales. We spotlighted our collaboration with local authorities (LAs), which sparked valuable discussion around LA resourcing and national-level regulation. The session provided valuable insight to support the team in taking their work forward and raised awareness of the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

• Jonathan Davies recently presented at the Welsh Government Food Forum to raise our profile amongst key colleagues in the Welsh Government (WG) and to discuss our priorities moving forward. We have now joined this forum and will attend future meetings, which will provide valuable insight and a platform for collaboration. In the same vein, I joined a recent meeting of the Food and Drink Wales Industry Board to provide an overview of our work and upcoming priorities, which led to interesting discussions on how we can support the Board going forward.  

• At the CIEH conference in October, we were delighted to welcome our Chief Executive, Katie Pettifer, to Cardiff. Katie delivered a presentation outlining the future strategies and priorities of the FSA, highlighting the organisation’s commitment to ensuring food safety, promoting public health, and adapting to emerging challenges across the sector. It was also an opportunity for Katie to meet and discuss with key stakeholders, including representatives for Directors of Public Protection Wales 

• Over the summer, as part of an FSA wide Computers for Charity project, the team donated IT equipment to charities across the country – helping to strengthen digital access and support vital services in local communities across Wales. Each charity received a donation of laptops and smartphones, helping them to improve their digital capabilities and better serve the people who rely on them. They included a wide range of organisations, including foodbanks, an emergency housing provider, and a charity supporting asylum seekers and refugees.  

• I have also continued to attend the oversight group for the Cardiff Met Review of FSA in Wales. We continue to work closely with Welsh Government and Cardiff Met colleagues to ensure that the report is accurate and delivers tangible actions. It is expected that the report will be published later this year 

 

4.2 Over the last few months, the policy teams in Wales have been involved in the following workstreams: 

• Following recent Board discussions on glycerol in slushies, and with support from the communications team in Wales, we promoted key health messages to stakeholders and consumers across Wales. This included briefing MSs and MPs, sharing key information with major media outlets, and providing a toolkit to LAs and stakeholders to amplify the messaging. We worked closely with Public Health Wales, NHS Wales Child Health, and Welsh Government Health and Education divisions, as well as organisations like Mudiad Meithrin and the Urdd to extend the campaign’s reach – particularly during the summer months when consumption and risk were highest. The campaign received high media interest in Wales. 

• We’ve worked closely with colleagues across all four nations to advance work on compositional standards and labelling for the Cell Cultivated Products project. In collaboration with the FSA in NI we developed of a series of papers exploring how such products are regulated internationally, the current views across EU member states, and the potential implications of different regulatory approaches.  

• We have recommended and successfully secured ministerial approval for the authorisation of eight new regulated products in Wales.  

• Working with wider FSA colleagues we issued a risk management statement advising businesses not to use ocean-bound plastic (OBP) in food packaging. This follows an assessment by the Joint Expert Group for Food Contact Materials, which reviewed OBP use in packaging for meat, poultry and fish.  

• On the current review of the meat charging discount scheme, the team recently met with Welsh meat industry stakeholders in Cardiff to gather stakeholder feedback on the future approach to support slaughterhouses and game handling establishments. The feedback gathered from stakeholders in Wales, and at similar events in England and Northern Ireland, will inform a paper going to the Board in December. 

• The team met with Lillian Jones MP (Kilmarnock and Loudoun), to discuss recalls of vitamin D food supplements in pharmacy type premises and the food supplements landscape. 

• We also presented at Zero2Five’s first Managing Allergens Forum in October, which was attended by businesses, testing houses and Anaphylaxis UK. Our focus was on unintentional allergens, food incidents and product recalls, making good links with a number of attendees and raising the profile of our work in this area. 

 

4.3 Our teams working with local authorities (LAs) have been involved in the following work: 

• We recently held an in-person Feed Delivery Day for LA feed officers across Wales. WFAC member Dave Holland was in attendance. The day covered the regional feed delivery model, incident reporting, an overview of feed policy and a session covering earned recognition in collaboration with Farm Assured Welsh Livestock (FAWL), one of the four FSA approved assurance scheme 

• We have been actively involved in recent EU Audits of GB, the most recent being EU Fisheries Products Audit. The team presented to the auditors at technical meetings and represented the FSA delivery teams during a visit to a local authority, ensuring a consistent UK-wide approach and strengthening collaboration across nations. The team are now completing the pre audit questionnaire as part of the EU Poultry Products Audit.  

• On 1 September 2025, we launched a six-month data collection project in Wales to test an enhanced registration system, involving five pilot and six control local authorities. The project will assess whether additional business data enables LAs to better triage initial inspections, improves compliance at the initial inspection, and reduces repeat non-compliance. Early feedback from LAs has been positive, particularly around the strong collaboration between FSA Wales and pilot authorities. Findings will be presented to the FSA Board and the Welsh Minister to inform future policy direction. 

• Following a 12-week consultation, the revised Food Law Code of Practice (Wales) and Food Law Practice Guidance have now been published. The revised Code introduces the new Food Standards Delivery Model and provides a more flexible, risk-based approach to prioritising official controls of new food businesses, permits a greater use of alternative control methods and broadens the cohort of professionals who can undertake certain activities. The team will now work with local authorities to support the implementation of these changes. 

• The team has recently kicked off the Allergen Audit Programme, with two local authority audits successfully completed and the third currently in progress. The fourth audit is planned for the beginning of December. 

• Additionally, the bi-annual local authority Performance Monitoring survey has now closed. The team are currently analysing the data and will be contacting individual LAs where potential concerns have been identified.  

 

4.4 The incidents and National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) teams have also been busy over recent months: 

• We are involved in the ongoing cross government Operation Pegasus exercise to test the preparedness for a pandemic response. FSA are involved with lead departments centrally and have been providing scientific advice alongside a rapid risk assessment. The teams in Wales are working closely with Welsh Government command and control structures as needed, risk to food has been identified as low but we remain engaged within Incidents and Communications team to ensure consumer reassurance. FSA are also using the exercise internally to test preparedness levels around staffing and a lesson learnt process is underway to identify improvements. 

• The FSA and National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) successfully secured a confiscation order totalling £31,250.51 from a Welsh defendant convicted of profiting from the illegal sale of ‘smokie’ meat. The court hearing took place in June and thanks to the support of the central media team, we drafted and published this news story, and shared with key national media outlets across Wales. 

• Sampling funding allocations have been determined for the 25/26 sampling programme, 5 bids were received from local authorities in Wales and are considered to ensure they are in line with the FSA Food Standards Priorities and the Food Law Code of Practice. Ten local authorities have been awarded funding for 177 samples covering allergens, quantitative ingredient declaration (QUID), meat speciation and meat content declaration. Samples will be taken from a range of premises.   

 

4.5 Our bilingual communications team in Wales have continued to ensure the dissemination of key FSA messaging across Wales, which has included:  

• We recently attended the Welsh Language Commissioner conference on sharing best practice in relation to Welsh language provision and jointly delivered a session with the Commissioner’s office providing an update on the FSA’s best practice around bilingual campaigns. The event was an opportunity to share best practice across government departments that operate Welsh Language Schemes, and to build this network to enable more efficient working in future. 

• In late September, we ran a targeted extension of our Bacteria Love It Here campaign, focusing on students starting or returning to university – many of whom are living in shared accommodation and cooking for themselves for the first time. We shared toolkits, assets and content with local authority press teams, partners, universities and media outlets in Wales, and the campaign gained coverage on BBC Radio Cymru’s breakfast show, which featured a segment on student kitchen hygiene. We’re also developing bilingual radio ads with quick food hygiene tips, set to air on student radio stations across Wales over the coming months. 

• The team also attended the recent Social Media Cymru conference bringing together creators, founders, and influencers from across Wales to share stories and advice on running professional and engaging accounts and the wider social media landscape. They picked up tips and techniques in preparation for launching new social media channels in Wales, with a focus on tailoring key FSA content to our Welsh audiences and stakeholders. 

5. Consultations 

5.1 The following consultations are live at present: 

Call for data: Acrylamide in food – The FSA and FSS are requesting data on the levels of acrylamide in food.  

Date launched: 30 July 2025 

Closing date: 30 November 2025 

 

• Consultation on applications for authorisation of 3 Cannabidiol (CBD) food products as novel foods August 2025 – Consultation seeking stakeholder views in relation to the regulated product applications considered in this document, which have been submitted for authorisation. 

Date launched: 28 August 2025 

Closing date: 20 November 2025 

• Consultation on the proposal to implement a ban on the use of bisphenol A (BPA) other bisphenols and bisphenol derivatives in food contact materials – This consultation is seeking stakeholders’ views, comments and feedback on our proposal to implement a ban on the use of bisphenol A (BPA) and other bisphenols in food contact materials (FCMs). The responses received will provide evidence that will be used to seek a formal decision on the status of BPA and its analogues. 

Date launched: 2 October 2025 

Closing date: 24 December 2025 

 

6.  Forward look  

6.1 Much of the work in this report will continue over the coming months. In addition, we will also be working to progress the following projects and workstreams. 

6.2 We will work closely with local authorities to help them transition to the Food Standards Delivery Model; taking learnings from the implementation in England and Northern Ireland. 

6.3 The upcoming Senedd election in May 2026 will bring a major change to Welsh parliamentary representation, increasing the number of Members of the Senedd (MSs) from 60 to 96. In anticipation of this shift, we are continuing to build strong relationships with MSs to ensure they are well-informed about consumer priorities around food in Wales. We have further engagement sessions planned at Y Farchnad in the Senedd, aimed at keeping food safety and standards prominent within the Welsh policy agenda. 

6.4 Our planned communication and stakeholder activity over the for the next few months includes: 

• As we head into the festive season, we’re launching a Christmas extension of our successful Bacteria Love It Here campaign, sharing food hygiene messages with consumers preparing meals at home. Alongside this, our Safer Food Means Better Business campaign continues to support small and micro food businesses.  

• As noted above, over the next few months the team will be launching new bilingual social channels for our audience in Wales. These channels will also allow us to interact and promote content from stakeholders and Local Authorities much more directly than we’re able to at present while sharing central communications channels, and will allow us to tailor messaging to reflect Welsh cultural context, values, and priorities.