Food Safety (Hansard, 18 January 1994)

§ Mr. Welsh
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what measures are taken in food poisoning investigations to determine sources of infection; and what assessment she has made of the extent to which these measures are adequate;
(2) when the proposed draft guidelines on the investigation of food poisoning will be released for consultation.

§ Mr. Sackville
It is for the authorities involved to decide upon the structure and priorities of any investigation undertaken regarding an outbreak of food poisoning.
Guidance on the management of such outbreaks will be released for consultation shortly.

§ Mr. Welsh
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will place in the Library the detailed protocols of the research into the incidence and sources of salmonella food poisoning being administered by the steering group on the microbiological safety of food.

§ Mr. Sackville
Copies of a background note summarising the protocol for the steering group's study of infectious intestinal disease in England will be placed in the Library. The study will provide information on the incidence, but not the sources, of salmonella food poisoning. More detailed information about the protocol will be available when the results of the study are published after its completion in 1995.

§ Mr. Welsh
To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what basis the research funding administered by the steering group on the microbiological safety of food has been, or will be, awarded; and whether the research work has been advertised to independent laboratories and research groups, on a tender basis.

§ Mr. Sackville
The steering group makes decisions on the need for new microbiological food safety surveillance projects on the basis of available epidemiological data and other data on food, food processes and food hygiene. Contracts are awarded by officials in the Department of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on behalf of the steering group to organisations in the public and private sectors with the relevant expertise. Neither of the national projects currently under way was appropriate for tender procedures, given their complexity. It is envisaged that suitable projects will be advertised in the future and subsequent contracts awarded on a tender basis.