Policy and legislation

Food Authenticity policy
Legislation
UK Food Sampling Guidance

This section contains important UK Government policy documents related to food authenticity testing.

2015-12-07

Document	Source	Uploaded
Elliott review into the integrity and assurance of food supply networks: final report	DEFRA (gov.uk)	2015-04-29
Government response to the Elliott review of the integrity and assurance of food supply networks	DEFRA (gov.uk)	2015-04-29
Authenticity Methods Working Group (AMWG) response to the Elliott review	DEFRA (gov.uk)	2015-12-07
Government Chemist Compendium of Food and Feed Law Legislation reviews	Government Chemist (www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-chemist)	2019-12-03
POSTnote on food fraud	The UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) note on food fraud.	2020-05-27

This section contains legislation and regulatory instruments related to food authenticity testing.

EU regulations

EU Food Information for Consumers regulation (FIC).

The EU regulation on country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry.

National regulations

The national Food Information Regulations (FIR) are at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1855/contents/made.

The guidance on complying with the FIC and FIR is at https://www.gov.uk/food-labelling-giving-food-information-to-consumers.

Products containing Meat (England) Regulations (PMR): http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3001/pdfs/uksi_20143001_en.pdf.

Guidance on PMR can be found via the FIC / FIR guidance above.

The Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015 are at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/518/made.

New (2015) honey regulations are at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1348/pdfs/uksi_20151348_en.pdf

Guidance on requirements for products listed under food standards legislation, such as bottled water, milk, fish and meat; table of UK mineral waters; 'best before' dates can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-standards-labelling-durability-and-composition

Equivalent legislation exists for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) makes funding available to enforcement authorities for sampling and surveillance of animal feed.

Scottish local authorities receive grant funding from Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to undertake food sampling, including microbiological, chemical and authenticity, in a number of targeted areas.