The five-year strategy, according to the FSAI, aims to ensure that Ireland’s food-safety regulatory system is robustly equipped to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented to food safety, within an evolving global food-supply chain with new innovations and changing consumer preferences and tastes. 

The FSAI says it will continue to lead and support Ireland’s food-safety inspectorate to implement a fair, consistent, and effective system of enforcement. The strategic actions include an evaluation of the evidence to inform policy relating to a hygiene-rating scheme for food businesses across Ireland. It identifies the roll out of targeted supports to assist with compliance by food businesses and making greater use of technology platforms to share communications on food safety and compliance. It will continue to advocate for food safety and authenticity nationally and internationally, as food systems innovate, embrace technology and transition to become more sustainable. The FSAI says it also commits to increasing collaboration with European and international partners to further enhance its preparedness to manage food safety risks.  

Dr Pamela Byrne, chief executive, FSAI says the new strategy provides a clear five-year roadmap to guide how it will work to achieve its strategic goals. 

“Our new strategy reaffirms our commitment to our vision of safe and trustworthy food for everyone. To realise this, we have developed a strategic roadmap, which accounts for the contemporary challenges and opportunities posed for food safety and food safety controls in Ireland and internationally.”

She explains that these have been considered within the context of a rapidly evolving global food system, influenced by a host of factors, including the drive towards more sustainable food systems, the development of new food products and the utilisation of technology.

“As an organisation, our core objective is to protect consumers’ health and assure continued trust in our food systems, by ensuring that the food consumed in Ireland, and Irish food consumed globally, is safe to eat. This new five-year strategy will continue to develop a culture of food safety in all food businesses and thereby, improve food safety overall.  The strategy is underpinned by actions, anchored in an evidence- and data-driven-based approach.
"We will continue to oversee a robust evidence-based regulatory system, which supports the food industry to thrive and develop with food safety at the core of how it operates. We will continue to build our organisational capabilities and deepen engagement and collaboration with our stakeholders, including our European and international partners. Combined, these actions will allow us to continue to protect consumers’ health and interests to the highest of standards,” says Dr Byrne.  

In the strategy document, Dr Byrne writes: “As we look to the next five years, we will need to be cognisant of the external policy environment – nationally and internationally. We will need to understand the dynamics of a rapidly evolving food landscape where global supply chains, emerging technologies, the impacts of climate change, the transition to more sustainable food systems, and shifting consumer expectations and preferences, all of which will create both opportunities and challenges. 

“Within this complex landscape we will continue to protect consumers here in Ireland and in more than 180 markets across the world in partnership with the Government departments and State agencies in Ireland and through our engagement with our European and international counterparts.”

 

The four strategic goals are: 

• Advocate and engage
  Advocate for the importance of food safety and authenticity in engagement with all stakeholders to better protect consumers’ health and interests and increase compliance. Actions include a commitment to streamline communications to food businesses using technology platforms and examining the evidence surrounding a hygiene-based rating scheme and its potential role in Ireland’s food control systems.  

• Reduce risk
  Enhance the ability to protect consumers’ health and interests by anticipating, assessing, and managing risks that impact on the safety and authenticity of food. Key commitments include the adoption of a multi-agency agreement on the management of incidents based on best practice. It also identifies the importance of strengthening capabilities to manage risk, through increased participation with European and international partners.  

• Enforce food law
  Ensure and verify compliance with food law and take appropriate action to protect consumers within a national regulatory framework. Priority actions include continued improvement in official food control systems; working on a cross-agency basis, with partners across Europe and globally; leading and supporting the national food safety inspectorate.  

• Drive organisational excellence
  Deliver better food safety outcomes for consumers through empowering staff, aligning systems, and demonstrating adaptive, value-driven leadership. Key commitments include maintaining a best-in-class approach to governance and improving efficiencies through maximising the use of digital technologies.  

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Strategy spotlight

In the area of reducing risk, the FSAI says one of its key objectives is to continue to strengthen Ireland’s capability and capacity to proactively identify, assess, manage, and communicate risks. 

To this end, the strategy sets out how the FSAI will achieve this from 2025-2027. The FSAI is an active partner of the European Food Safety Authority contributing to the advancement of European risk assessment and risk communication. 

Its simulation activities, crisis preparedness and cooperation initiatives with national, European and international partners strengthens Ireland’s ability to manage risk. And, through improved systems and collaboration, it will identify emerging risks and threats to and from the food system.

In relation to enforcing food law, the FSAI says it will lead and support Ireland’s food-safety inspectorate to implement a fair, consistent, and effective system of enforcement to the highest standards set out in national, European or international legislation.

It sets out to achieve this through the effective delivery of service contracts by the official agencies, managed and supported by the FSAI, and supplemented by its direct official controls. Additionally, the ongoing effectiveness of official controls wil be verified and demonstrated through independent audits of the official agencies, data analysis and other appropriate tools, and service contract arrangements will be reviewed to identify areas for improvements.