HC Deb 26 January 1995 vol 253 c356W
27. Mr. Gill

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps have been taken to encourage deregulation in the food industry.

Mrs. Browning

Since we published our food law deregulation programme in September 1993 we have made important progress. Proposals to update and simplify general food hygiene rules have been drawn up as part of the implementation of the EC general food hygiene directive. We have held preliminary consultations on various food composition regulations and will be following these up shortly with firm proposals. Now that directives on food additives have been agreed in Brussels, we expect to be able to consolidate our regulations in this area. We are consulting on updated and revised food labelling regulations and we are reviewing options for the simplification and co-ordination of various vertical food hygiene directives with a view to discussing our ideas in Brussels.