Food Supply

(asked on 22nd July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of staff involved in food safety testing having to self-isolate as a result of covid-19 on food supply chains.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 6th September 2021

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is engaging closely with the sector to monitor industry concerns relating to their own food safety testing in the light of reduced staff availability from positive Covid-19 tests and a requirement to self-isolate, with a view to taking risk management steps as required to minimise impacts for consumers. The addition of FSA roles to the self-isolation exemptions list will also help to mitigate the risk over the coming weeks.

The FSA has also assessed Official Laboratories at the beginning and throughout the pandemic. This has shown that labs are operational and could access services from other Official Labs were there to be an increase in absences. The FSA has not received any recent reports from labs on concerns around reduced staff numbers as a result of self-isolation, and this is being continually monitored.

In view of the impact of the pandemic on local authority (LA) services, on 16 June the FSA issued specific advice in the form of a LA Recovery Plan on its expectations of LAs with regard to the delivery of food law official controls from 1 July 2021. LAs should inform the FSA as early as possible should they be unable to deliver against the plan during the recovery period.

Overall, the UK has a resilient food supply chain built on strong domestic production and open markets, and which has continued to respond strongly to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and labour shortages. We have been working with colleagues across Government and with the industry to ensure that our food supply chain has the support that it needs. Overall, the UK has a resilient food supply chain built on strong domestic production and open markets, and which has continued to respond strongly to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and labour shortages. We have been working with colleagues across Government and with the industry to ensure that our food supply chain has the support that it needs. This includes enabling critical sites across the food supply chain to carry out Daily Contact Testing to minimise disruption from self-isolation, and ensure that food supply continues to operate. So far, the roll out of DCT has focussed on over 500 of the largest sites across the food chain, including supermarket and wholesale distribution centres, large manufacturing sites and processing plants.

Since 16 August those who are fully vaccinated, participants of approved vaccine trials or those unable to have the vaccine for medical reasons are exempt from self-isolation if they are a close contact of a positive case. Children and those under the age of 18 years and 6 months are also exempt if they are a close contact. These groups still need to self-isolate if they develop symptoms or if they test positive. Those who are no longer required to self-isolate if they are a close contact of a positive case continue to be advised to take a PCR test. Age-appropriate testing will be advised for those under the age of 18 years and 6 months.

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