10th Open Meeting - 9 December 2021

Summary

• The Chair presented a summary of the Science Council’s activity over the last 6 months.
• The FSA provided an update on the Annual Science report to the FSA Board and the development of key performance indicators (KPIs) for FSA science.
• The CSA updated the Council on his recent activity and discussions (including the Government spending review, gene editing food, food labelling and alternative proteins).
• An update on progress of Working Group 6 on Food Safety and Net Zero Carbon (including the workshop on 18 November).
• Updates from Science Council members attending Scientific Advisory Committees (SACs).

Final minutes of the 10th Science Council open meeting public session adopted at the 11th Science Council open meeting on 23 June 2022

Link to final minutes here

Public attendance at this open meeting

Members of the public are welcome to attend Science Council open meetings as observers and should send a request to the Science Council secretariat (at the e-mail address below) if they would like to attend. Any requests to attend this meeting should be received before 5pm on Monday 6 December.  Please note that space for observers is limited so we may not be able to accommodate everyone who wants to attend.

COVID-19

The Science Council secretariat is applying 1m social distancing at this meeting and request that any members of the public attending this meeting wear face masks during the meeting and have a negative lateral flow test result for COVID-19 before they arrive.

Questions to the Science Council

Members of the public are also invited to send in any questions they have for the Science Council on the topics under discussion at the 10th open meeting. Please send any questions to the Science Council secretariat at the e-mail address below before 5pm on Monday 6 December 2021. The Science Council will try to answer your questions at the meeting, but if we are unable to do this, we will try to provide a written response before the next Science Council meeting.

While questions about the activities of the Science Council are welcomed, the Science Council cannot answer questions on the FSA or FSA policy in general.

Science Council Secretariat contact

sciencecouncil@food.gov.uk

Agenda

Note that this agenda may be subject to revision

*9:45-10:00 (15 mins) Arrival and registration*

10:00-10:10 (10 mins) Sandy Thomas

1) Welcome and Introductions (incl. review of members’ interests)

10:10-10:20 (10 mins) Chun-Han Chan

2) Update on actions from the Science Council 9th open meeting

10:20-10:35 (15 mins) Sandy Thomas

3) Chair’s update on her activity over the last 6 months

10:35-10:55 (20 mins) Adam Cook

4) FSA Science update (meeting paper not published as it contains material for the closed session of this meeting)

• Science Key performance Indicators (KPIs);
• The Annual Science Paper to the FSA Board;

10:55-11:15 (20 mins) Robin May

5) CSA verbal update.

• Cross Government food labelling discussions.
• Defra consultation on Gene Editing
• Reflections on the HMG response and any FSA follow-up actions.
• COP 26
• The FSA experience post-EU Exit

11:15-11:30 (15 Mins)  Break

11:30-12:00 (30 Mins) Claire Nicholson, Jonathan Wastling

6) Working Group 6 on food safety implications of net zero carbon:

• Update on progress and the 18 November workshop
• Next steps

12:00-12:20 (20 Mins) Sandy Thomas, John O’Brien, Claire Nicholson, Jonathan Wastling

7) Update on other Scientific Advisory Committees (SACs):

• Discussion of the summary of SAC activities over last 6 months and readout of key topics from Science Council SAC observers.

12:20-12:30 (15 mins) Chun-Han Chan

8) Any Other Business and Close the session

• Brief verbal update on activity implementing recommendations from the Science Council's critical review of third party evidence
• Date and location of the next open meeting.

12:35-12:50 (15 mins) Sandy Thomas

9) Public Q&A session.