The Food Standards Agency has joined with the Lithuanian Embassy in the UK to host the Lithuanian EU Presidency event to discuss how future European food business regulation might look.
The conference, entitled ‘Food safety, risk and modern supply networks’, will be held at the Lithuanian Embassy on 24 October at 3pm. There will be presentations and a panel discussion with representatives from the FSA, retailers, manufacturers and the media, with the keynote address given by Michael Scannell, Director of the Food and Veterinary Service at the European Commission. The meeting will be chaired by Awilo Ochieng Pernet, Vice-Chair of the international food standards setting body Codex Alimentarius.
In the wake of the Europe-wide horse meat incident, the conference will discuss what happened and how governments, regulators and industry should have responded. This will be considered in the context of the current negotiations to adapt the Official Controls Regulation (EC 882/2004).
Tim Bennett, Chair of the FSA, will be opening the conference. He said: 'This conference is an opportunity for UK stakeholders to feed in their views on the current official controls proposal from the European Commission in front of the Presidency and key stakeholders from around Europe.
'The FSA is leading for the UK Government on these negotiations, so this is an ideal time to make your views heard on hot topics such as charging and earned recognition.'
The Ambassador of Lithuania in the UK, Asta Skaisgiryte Liauškiene, said: 'A well-functioning single market is one of the main priorities of our Presidency, therefore, we seek to modernise and simplify the food safety controls for the EU agri-food industry by taking into account the views of stakeholders.'
Those with an interest in what food business regulation might look like in the future should find this an interesting and provocative half-day conference.
