Traceability in the UK (meat, fish, feed and associated products)

1. Traceability in the UK(meat, fish, feed and associated products) Elizabeth McNulty Head of Incidents Branch Food Standards Agency

2. Scope of presentation • Legal Basis for Traceability • Overview of Traceability Meat and Meat Products • Overview of Traceability of Fish and Fish Products • Overview of Traceability of Animal Feed

3. Legal Basis for Traceability of Food • Article 18 EC Regulation 178/2002 • 18(1)Traceability of food, feed food producing animals shall be established at all stagesof production, processing and distribution • 18(2/3) Have in place systems and procedures to identify businesses that have supplied them or who they have sold to.

4. Legal basis for traceability of food (contd) • 18(3) information shall be made available to competent authorities on demand • 18(4) food placed on market shall be adequately labelled or identified to facilitate its traceability- includes documentation

5. Traceability • Does not make food safe- it is a risk management tool used to control food safety problems • Ensures targeted or accurate withdrawals/recalls can be undertaken, appropriate information can be given to consumers and food businesses and unnecessary disruption of trade can be avoided

6. What does this mean in practice? • Traceability requirement relies on one step back and one step forward approach. • Do not have to record immediate customers if final consumers • Does not extend to food business operators in third countries

7. UK Approval System Approval of meat plants • Under food hygiene legislation that came into effect on 1 January 2006, meat plants require approval. • Slaughterhouses, cutting plants and game handling establishments require veterinary control and must be approved by the the Food Standards Agency. • Any co-located cold stores, minced meat, meat preparation or meat products establishments are also approved by the Agency .

8. Meat and Meat Products Slaughter House: • Different species, sizes, throughputs • Health Mark (ID mark) Kill number, batch number applied by meat inspector after inspection of the carcase • Carcase may be traceable to the day of production, farm is usually known

9. Meat and Meat Products Cutting Plants: • Depends, internal traceability may be lost to an individual animal, but it can be traced back to farm (also ID mark) • Bar codes on retail packages may point to time of productions e.g. between 10-11 am on 29 January

10. Meat and Meat Products Processed Meat • May be linked to a day of production and time, but not really to animal/s • Final product required to be labelled, also use by and best before date. Also ID mark

13. UK 1594 EEC

14. Approval Fish and Fish Products Fish and shellfish approval • Premises that handle or process fishery products and live bivalve molluscs must be approved under European Union Regulation 853/2004 Fishery products • all seawater or freshwater animals (except for live bivalve molluscs, live echinoderms, live tunicates and live marine gastropods, and all mammals, reptiles and frogs) whether wild or farmed and including all edible forms, parts and products of such animals. Bivalve molluscs • filter feeding lamellibranch molluscs • the regulations apply the same conditions to tunicates, echinoderms and marine gastropods, setting criteria for production areas, harvesting, transportation, relaying and purification.

15. Product Labelling • Name of the food • List of ingredients in descending order of weight • Name and address of the manufacturer, packer or seller in the UK • Any special storage conditions i.e. keep refrigerated • Date of durability • County of origin • In addition the Labelling of Food Regulations also has a schedule of permitted names that must be used to describe certain species of fish making it an offence to call any other fish by one of these names.

16. Product Labelling Cont: • Designated name of the fish or shellfish • Whether it is wild or farmed • Catch area • County of Origin • Approval number of the establishment or factory ship from which it originates

17. Animal Feed - Legal Basis • EC Feed Hygiene Regulation 183/2005 • National rules contained within the Feed (Hygiene and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2005 • Separate but parallel Regulations made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

18. EC Feed Hygiene Regulation 183/2005 • Provisions are aimed at increasing feed safety • Traceability measures included in order that contaminated feed can be identified quickly and recalled / withdrawn from the supply chain. • Regulation requires the approval and/or registration of feed business establishments. • In Great Britain the Regulations are primarily enforced by Trading Standards Officers.

19. EC Feed Hygiene Regulation 183/2005 • Approval ; requires inspection prior to operating, high risk activities • Registration: business placed on official list and follow up checks made. • Both lists are publically available.

20. Who has to Comply • All feed businesses that make, market or use animal feed • Importers and sellers of animal feed products • Transporters of feed • Storers of feed

21. Traceability Summary • EC guidance on the implementation of General Food Law 178/2002 • Traceability requirement relies on one step back and one step forward approach. • Do not have to record immediate customers if final consumers • Does not extend to food business operators in third countries

22. Traceability Summary Cont: • ‘Internal traceability’ ie the matching up of all inputs to outputs is not a legal requirementof Regulation 178/2002 • No requirement to establish such a link or to keep records how batches are split • FBOs should be encouraged to develop internal traceability systems- the level of detail should be left to FBO commensurate with nature &size of business

23. Thank you for your attention Liz McNulty Head of Incident Response Food Standards Agency Liz.mcnulty@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk