GovWire

This report presents the findings of the stakeholder workshop carried out on 6 June 2022 at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, London. Thirty stakeholders from across the food and feed sector, including representatives from manufacturers, distributors, retailers, importers, regulators, legal and government, established the key divers influencing the food and feed sector to which the proposed Government Chemist Programme 2023-2026 should respond.

The workshop comprised of two components; an initial brainstorming followed by a prioritisation stage.

In excess of 320 ideas were gathered in the initial brainstorming phase. From this wealth of information, participants decided the following as priorities:

• Food authenticity and food fraud prevention

• Food security

• Alternative proteins

• Contaminants in novel foods, packaging and recycled materials

• Environmental claims / food labelling

• Gene Editing / GMOs

• Data capture, mining and effective use/misinformation

• Enhanced surveillance

• New regulations for novel foods

• Skills gaps, availability and training

Other concerns highlighted related to global food shortages, ethical kite marks/verification and ownership of new plant/genetic species (e.g., Nagoya protocol).

Based on these identified priorities, the Office of the Government Chemist will now prepare a draft future work programme for further prioritisation by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) appointed Programme Expert Group in November 2022, to allow contracting and start of the finally agreed programme in April 2023.