The UK’s Food Standards Agency will take action to improve procedures after criticisms over its handling of the Irish pork dioxins scare last December.

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In it annual independent review, management consultancy Steelhenge concluded that the FSA failed to communicate effectively with governmental departments and stakeholders.


“In the ‘early stages’ of the incident, 75% of stakeholders viewed the quality and timeliness of information from the FSA as inadequate, ambiguous and/or late,” the review said.


Timely communication was hindered “by a perception that FSA was unwilling to communicate information or take key decisions until absolute certainties were known,” the report added.


The management consultants have made a number of recommendations on how the FSA can improve its response to such incidents, including higher levels of staff training and alterations to procedures.

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Steelhenge has made a number of recommendations for the FSA to improve its future performance in similar situations, including procedural changes and increased staff training. From these recommendations, the FSA has created an action plan to improve future communications.


“It is really important for us to learn from incidents such as these. We welcome the action plan and we are really grabbing this opportunity to build on and improve what we do,” a spokesperson for the FSA told just-food.


Chief scientist Dr Andrew Wadge added: “We continue to build on our experience and expertise in this area to ensure that the public are protected from any risk to health from food incidents.”