Tuesday 13 July 2010

Food Standards Authority

Douglas Carswell on his blog says:

The abolition on the Food Standards Agency is something this blog has long called for.

I cannot understand how it can be right for the state to nanny and hector us, telling us what to eat. The FSA, for example, spends a small fortune producing patronising posters lecturing us about salt intake.

More problems in Britain today are caused by the creeping infantilisation of society by the state than are the result of poor eating habits.

If we are to have a state-run food policy, I don't see why it should be left to unaccountable quangocrats to deliver it. Let ministers come before the people's tribunes and explain why they think they know best. Forced to justify itself, the case for Big Government is always less compelling than at first it seems in quangoland.

What about scrapping that other FSA, the Financial Services Authority, too?

From an acknowledged eurosceptic there seems to be something missing. The FSA, a relatively new agency - created in 2000, is being abolished because food safety will be regulated instead by another unelected, unaccountable Quango - the European Union.

In the short term, FSA’s functions are likely to be transferred to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) while the EU decides how to implement Article 13.1 of the EC Regulation on nutrition and health claims. As part of that effort the European Health Claims Alliance is holding a conference on Sept 30th in Brussels.

Why Mr Carswell doesn't mention that the EU has competences over our food regulation is a little odd to say the least.

No comments:

Post a Comment