THE government has announced changes to the departments that have responsibility for food labelling policy in England, including the labelling of fish products.

The Food Standards Agency will retain responsibility for food safety aspects of labelling but, in England, other responsibilities will go to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Responsibilities for nutrition labelling will move to the Department of Health at a later date. The three departments will be working closely together to ensure joined-up engagement from government on food labelling policy.

The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are currently considering whether they want to make any alterations to their current arrangements for food labelling and composition policy, given these changes in England. However, at present, functions that are transferring in England remain the responsibility of the FSA in those countries.

Defra will continue to cover its current labelling responsibilities, such as welfare, marketing standards and eco-labelling. It will also now deal with labelling where this does not relate to food safety or nutrition, including fish labelling, as follows:

• general lead on food labelling legislation and relevant EU negotiations
• lead on the EU Food Information proposal
• country of origin labelling
• food composition standards and labelling such as fruit juice and fruit nectars, jams and bottled water
• technical advice on compositional standards for food without specific legislation, such as soft drinks and cereal products
• fish labelling
• use of marketing terms e.g. natural, fresh, clear labelling, vegan and vegetarian labelling
• food authenticity programme
• Codex Committees for: Food Labelling, Processed Fruits and Vegetables, Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Fats and Oils, Fish and Fishery Products, Europe, General Principles
• lead on Codex Alimentarius Commission, General Principles and Coordinating Committee for Europe.

The changes to labelling policy responsibilities can be found here.