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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many prosecutions have been initiated in each of the last five years for labelling of food content which was deliberately misleading; and what percentage of those prosecutions related to the salt content. [223843] Miss Melanie Johnson: [holding answer 24 March 2005]: Information is not held centrally on the number of prosecutions for labelling of food offences which were deliberately misleading, or which related to salt content. In line with the requirements of the European Union's Official Control Directive (OCD) 89/397, the data on prosecutions collected from local authorities by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reported under seven generic headings, one of which is "labelling and presentation". In accordance with the relevant European Union guidance, each type of enforcement action is only recorded once per premises per year. The FSA currently holds information for the five years covering the period 1999 to 2003. The numbers of premises subject to prosecutions initiated in the United Kingdom under the heading of "labelling and presentation" during the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 are shown in the table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number of establishments subject to Percentage of all prosecutions initiated prosecution 1999 284 26 2000 224 30 2001 150 23 2002 161 20 2003 193 22 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c1442W;432 c1438W; 223843

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Food Labelling Prosecutions Misrepresentation Salt

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk