The FSA has today announced an additional programme of priority testing of lamb dishes from takeaway restaurants across the UK following evidence of ongoing substitution of lamb for cheaper meats such as beef and chicken. Businesses could face prosecution if food is found to have been deliberately mislabelled.

An FSA review of local authority sampling data, from July to December 2013, found that 43 out of 145 samples of lamb takeaway meals contained meat other than lamb. In total, 25 of these samples were found to contain only beef. Other meat species identified included chicken and turkey. No samples were found to contain horse meat.

In response to the ongoing concerns about lamb substitution, the FSA is starting a further round of priority testing of lamb takeaway dishes from businesses across the UK. Local authorities are being asked to test 300 samples from takeaway restaurants and report the findings to the FSA. Sampling will start at the beginning of May. The mislabelling of food can result in fines of up to £5,000.

The concerns identified in the local authority data are also reflected in a survey of lamb dishes from restaurants in Birmingham and London released today by Which? The consumer organisation purchased 60 lamb takeaways, 30 curries and 30 minced lamb kebabs, of which a total of 24 were adulterated with beef and chicken.

Andrew Rhodes, Chief Operating Officer at the FSA, said: 'Substitution of lamb for cheaper meats in takeaway food, as seen in our own data and the survey released today by Which?, is unacceptable and we are working closely with local authorities to ensure robust action is taken against any businesses misleading their customers.

'Prosecutions have taken place against business owners for mislabelling lamb dishes, but the recurring nature of the problem shows there needs to be a renewed effort to tackle this problem. Clearly the message isn’t getting through to some businesses.

'The further priority testing we have announced today will focus the efforts of enforcement officers and raise awareness amongst food businesses of the action they face for defrauding consumers.'

Following the completion of the priority testing programme, authenticity testing of takeaway lamb dishes will continue as part of local authority sampling programmes.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has today confirmed details of a new round of tests of beef products for horse meat contamination. The tests have been requested by the European Commission as part of the follow-up to last year’s horse meat incident where a number of beef products sold across Europe were found to have been deliberately adulterated with horse meat.

The testing is not based on any new intelligence about food fraud but has been requested as part of the on-going work to ensure the problems discovered last year do not reoccur.

Since last year, local authorities in the UK have been testing beef products for horse meat as part of their routine sampling programmes. The UK food industry has also been testing beef products and submitting quarterly results to the FSA. The new round of European testing is in addition to both of these strands of on-going work.

All member states have been asked to submit test results. The UK will collect and test 150 samples of beef products. These will include raw beef products such as mince, burgers and sausages. Cooked ready meals including canned products will also be tested.

The samples will be taken by 24 local authorities across all UK countries from retail outlets, wholesale catering suppliers, and cold stores. Testing will be carried out by the local authorities and funded by the FSA. The sampling protocol is available on the link below.

Any samples testing positive for horse meat contamination above the 1% reporting level set for the EU-wide study will be announced following laboratory confirmation. Action will be taken to withdraw the affected product from sale. All test results will be submitted to the European Commission by July 2014.

Steve Wearne, Director of Policy at the FSA, said: 'We remain vigilant about the threats to our food supply from fraudsters and determined that we do not see a repeat of the problems that emerged last year. We are working closely with local authorities to do more authenticity testing and we have increased the additional funding we provide to support this to £2m this year.

'This new round of EU testing should give additional reassurance to consumers across Europe that the food chain is being checked for potential problems.

'As well as additional testing we continue to learn lessons from last year’s incident. We asked Professor Pat Troop to review the FSA’s response to the horse meat incident and are currently working on her recommendations to improve our intelligence gathering and review the way we respond to incidents. The Government also asked Professor Chris Elliott to review the integrity of the UK food supply networks. Professor Elliott’s interim report is currently being discussed with interested parties and we await his final report.'

A company has asked the FSA's expert advisers on novel foods to consider an application for chia seeds to be approved for use in the European Union (EU) under the simplified approval procedure. Views are wanted on the application.

The simplified approval procedure and 'equivalence'
The company, Andean Grain Products Ltd, is requesting an opinion from the FSA on the 'equivalence' of their chia seeds, which are grown in particular regions of South America, with the chia seeds marketed by The Chia Company that are grown in Australia.

The European Novel Foods Regulation includes a simplified approval procedure for when a company believes its novel food is substantially equivalent to a food that is already on the market. In such a situation, the applicant can submit a notification to the European Commission after obtaining an opinion on equivalence from an EU member state – in this case the UK.

More about the seeds
Chia is a summer annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Labiatae family. It grows from a seedling to develop lush green foliage before it produces long flowers which are either purple or, less commonly, white. These flowers develop into seed pods to produce chia seeds. Although chia is grown commercially in several Latin American countries and Australia, the seeds have not been consumed to a significant degree in Europe.

The applicant’s chia seeds will be used in the same products as those for which approval has been granted last year for the Chia Company’s seeds (bread products, breakfast cereal, fruit, nut and seed mixes and bread and 100% packaged chia seeds).

About novel foods
A novel food is a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption within the European Union before 15 May 1997.

Before any new food product can be introduced on the European market it must be rigorously assessed for safety. In the UK, the assessment of novel foods is carried out by the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP), an independent committee of scientists appointed by the FSA.

Deadline for comments Any comments on this application should be emailed to the ACNFP secretariat at acnfp@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk by Friday 2 May 2014 and will be passed to the committee when it begins its assessment of this novel food ingredient.

The FSA has updated its list of product ranges that do not contain the six food colours associated with possible hyperactivity in young children. The manufacturers Frobishers Juices Ltd and Sandwich King have been added to the list. Their product lines are free from the six colours.

The list includes companies that have product ranges that have never contained the six colours and companies that have reformulated their product ranges to remove the colours. The colours, identified by a Southampton University study financed by the Food Standards Agency, are:

• sunset yellow FCF (E110)
• quinoline yellow (E104)
• carmoisine (E122)
• allura red (E129)
• tartrazine (E102)
• ponceau 4R (E124)

The FSA is publicising the product ranges to encourage the food industry to participate in the voluntary ban. The voluntary ban was agreed by ministers in November 2008.

Consumers who are particularly concerned about the presence of the colours should continue to check labels, especially in the case of products with a long shelf-life, where the availability of reformulated products may vary.

Any food manufacturer, retailer or caterer wishing to notify the FSA that their brands or products are free of these colours should email the details to Benedict Duncan, at: benedict.duncan@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk