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The Food Standards Agency has been criticised over the last
few years for not listening to the different bodies it has
to work with. These include the enforcement community, campaign
groups and even industry. In our personal lives, we all know
that the cement that binds our relationships is communication.
Partnerships between government agencies, businesses or institutions
are not that different. The same principle applies.
One of the striking things to come out of EHJ canvassing
the profession's opinions on the FSA is how pleased port health
authorities are with the support they are getting. This may
in part be because the imported food division recruited staff
from port health authorities. Enforcers and advisers are talking
the same language and are starting from a basic knowledge
of each other's role. While there are EHPs working in the
enforcement division of the FSA, it is populated more by civil
servants. This, in itself, is no bad thing, it just means
that there is going to have to be more dialogue before that
basic level of understanding is reached. Suggestions for fostering
this include secondments and FSA staff attending food liaison
group meetings.
The FSA cannot do the job it has been tasked with without
the full commitment and involvement of EHPs on the ground.
The simple reason is that the FSA is not the enforcer, so
a partnership has to exist. The key message that comes out
of this month's EHJ survey is that the more effort that is
made to strengthen that partnership now, the less effort will
be exerted in the long run through avoidable internecine conflicts.
Also this month EHJ launches a regular international feature
looking at public health initiatives around the globe. We
revisit Tanzania in the year that the first degree-qualified
EHOs are to graduate. The Northern Ireland centre and the
CIEH played a part in the creation of this degree by funding
an environmental health library for Dar es Salaam's Muhimbili
University. Bill Page, an EHO from Newham LBC, compares conditions
in modern day Dar es Salaam to those that Edwin Chadwick found
in 19th century London, prompting him to write his seminal
work Report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population
of Great Britain.
We also look at a subject hotly debated in the press - obesity
and nutrition - and reveal that the government lacks a coordinated
strategy for tackling what has become one of the UK's top
public health threats.
Stuart Spear
Editor
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