SAVE THE DATE: FOB 75TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER – 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 – This year marks the 75th anniversary of the formation of the Federation of Bakers and to celebrate the occasion we will be hosting a special dinner on Wednesday, 27th September 2017 at Fishmongers’ Hall in the City of London. This event will be in place of the usual Annual Conference. The FOB AGM will be held on a separate date in May/June to be advised shortly. Further details and booking information for this black tie event will be published shortly, but in the meantime please can you save the date in your diaries. Any enquiries regarding sponsorship opportunities or bookings please contact mailto:amy.yeates@fob.uk.com
WEEKLY NEWS:
Bank of England Inflation Report: The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sets monetary policy to meet the 2% inflation target, and in a way that helps to sustain growth and employment. At its meeting ending on 1 February 2017, the Committee voted unanimously to maintain Bank Rate at 0.25%. The Committee voted unanimously to continue with the programme of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, totalling up to £10 billion. The Committee also voted unanimously to maintain the stock of UK government bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, at £435 billion. Find below a link to the February 2017 Inflation Report: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/Pages/reader/index.aspx?pub=feb&page=1.
Government guidance on prompt payment: After a delay of more than a year, Government shared guidance on the mandatory requirement for large or listed companies to publish reports every six months from April 2017 on their payment practices and performance. The document sets out important details of who needs to report, the metrics that need to be included and how they will be published.
IFS report on apprenticeship levy: The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) published a report this week evaluating the likely effectiveness of the Apprenticeship Levy. The report from the IFS warned that there is a danger the significant expansion target for apprenticeships could come at the expense of quality. Further, the IFS warned that whilst the Levy is expected to raise £2.8bn by 2019-20, only £640m may be spent. The full report can be viewed here.
Payment Practices: The Government has published guidance on the mandatory “Duty to Report”, setting out metrics through which large or listed companies will report on their payment practices. Businesses have voiced concerns about the guidance and implementing costs: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/587465/payment-practices-performance-reporting-requirements.pdf
AIBI Update on Acrylamide in Food-European Commission: Last week an exchange of views took place in the ENVI Committee MEP’s together with the European Commission and EFSA on acrylamide in food. You can watch the discussion (put the cursor on 58:00 and time 16:50 h). http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20170131-1545-COMMITTEE-ENVI. Sabine Jülicher (DG SANTE) gave an overview about the acrylamide issue explaining the steps of the European Commission following the EFSA opinion of July 2015. EFSA explains the outcome of the EFSA study in detail to the MEP’s and the potential cancerogenic of acrylamide. In general the MEP’s who took part in the discussion questioned the approach of the European Commission not going for maximum levels and not taking the 1881/2006 contaminants regulation as a legal basis.
- DE – Renate Sommer
- BE – Bart Staes
- UK – Julie Girling
- UK – Julia Reid,
- ES – Pilar Ajuso
Some MEP’s (Sommer, Ajuso) were moderate in the assessment of acrylamide, wished for more research and did not want to trigger a panic in the population. Ms Jülicher explained that the hygiene regulation is chosen as legal basis, because here the responsibility of the food business operators can be implemented. She explains that acrylamide formation in food cannot be completely avoided. She further explains that when the draft regulation is adopted, in a second step there will be maximum levels for certain ready-to-eat foods (which ones she does not say explicitly) will be implemented.
Further the General food law (article 14) allows to remove food from the market which levels are higher than the benchmarks of acrylamide. It seems that all agree that to increase awareness of acrylamide by the consumer is a very important, but not to alarm the consumer. It is important to inform the consumer about their home cooking practices. In this context the FSA in UK did just a campaign on acrylamide: https://www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/news/2017/15890/families-urged-to-go-for-gold-to-reduce-acrylamide-consumption
The next steps in the process are the following:
Member State experts of the Toxicological Safety Committee are expected to discuss the draft measure during their meeting to be held on 8 February 2017. The draft measure will then be presented to the Toxicological Safety Committee for an opinion at a future meeting. The draft measure is likely to be submitted to a 4-week ‘better regulation’ public consultation in the coming weeks. If the Committee issues a favorable opinion on the draft, the Commission will send it to the European Parliament and the Council for scrutiny. The scrutiny period will last for 3 months. If neither of the institutions objects to the draft, the Commission will adopt the Regulation. It will then be published in the Official Journal and will enter into force.
CampdenBRI Research on Ancient Grains: The pseudocereals amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat morphologically resemble true cereals but are genetically unrelated. They have a high quality and quantity protein profile, and are gluten free. Ancient Grains – Insights into Potential Applications (RD415) evaluates pseudocereals by assessing nutritional and functional aspects of the grain and flour to gain insights into their potential applicability. Read the report on the project web page
NEWS FROM HSE:
Food and Drink (F&D) Manufacture Health and Safety Forum – The Forum’s revised voluntary Common Strategy (2016-2021) for the F&D industry, is now active. This Strategy looks to build on previous strategy success, by focusing on delivering measurable improvements against four key objectives. These objectives aim to accelerate the reduction in the ill-health and injury rate in a sector that has a current rate in excess of twice the manufacturing average.
Manufacturing Sector Plan for 2017-2018 – your comments requested – We are actively seeking feedback from the food and drink manufacture industry on HSE’s draft Manufacturing Sector Plan. If you wish to comment on the draft, visit HSE’s Strategies and Plans Webpages.
There are also plans to hold a series of regional roadshows in 2017 and HSE’s website will be updated regularly with further details.
Launch of Health and Work strategy – The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Penny Mordaunt MP has pledged her support for a new strategy for health in Britain’s workplaces. The announcement was supported by HSE Chair, Martin Temple and it illustrates HSE’s contribution to wider government initiatives on work and health. The HSE’s Health and Work strategy informs of priorities which focus on work-related stress, musculoskeletal disorders and occupational lung disease.
HSE’s Stress Summit – HSE’s first ever Stress Summit is taking place on 16th March 2017 at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, London. In 2015/16 stress, anxiety and depression resulted in 11.7 million working days lost at an estimated social and economic cost of £5.2 billion. Not only is work related stress damaging to health and wellbeing, it can impact productivity, competitiveness and profitability. For more information and details of the summit visit HSL’s Events Page.
Research Report – Risks to respiratory health in the grain industry. A detailed literature search was carried out to summarise evidence about respiratory disease caused by exposure to grain dust. The conclusion of this review is that the damaging effects of grain dust on the respiratory tract are accumulative and occur at high concentrations of exposure. Acute responses also occur and include declines in lung function as well as irritation and inflammation of the airways. For more information and to read the report visit HSE’s Research Webpages.
Bakers have the second highest incidence rate of occupational asthma as reported by chest physicians, who also report that flour/grain dust is the second highest contributing agent for causing occupational asthma. More information on occupational asthma and respiratory sensitisers can be found on HSE’s Food & Drink Manufacture Webpages.
Gordon Polson
Director – Federation of Bakers