Every year, food businesses (in fact any business or organisation that has dealings with food, no matter how minor) are subject to regulations and legal requirements that become more complex each year.
Directors of companies, or those in positions of responsibility in any organisation, can be held personally liable for breaches of the law, face heavy personal fines and even imprisonment.
Together with our colleagues in Consult Capital, we can help you with a wide range of matters, providing you with clear, concise and practical advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and comply with the law.
If an issue arises, we can also represent you in dealing with the enforcement agencies, giving timely and effective help to stop a matter from escalating. Should you be unable to reach a resolution, we can also represent you in court. Whether in preparation for a prosecution, or simply to test your systems, we can also conduct mock trials, ensuring you are best prepared for every eventuality. We can also provide training bringing peace of mind as your systems are brought up to scratch.
Confidentiality and publicity issues are important areas we can also advise on. Always a sensitive issue, adverse publicity can cause irreparable harm to businesses and organisations dealing with food.
Our expertise covers every aspect of food law, from Intellectual Property issues (labelling, product design and food description, for example), to complex compliance issues in abattoirs and regulatory issues on food production processes. This is in addition to the provision of general commercial advice (e.g. contracts for clients supplying Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons etc.).
We also advise small businesses and not for profit organisations on their food issues, for example, food hygiene in canteens.
Specific areas of advice include:
- Food Standard Agency compliance and related issues
- DEFRA compliance and related issues
- Agriculture and rural affairs departments in the devolved administrations (including grant and support schemes)
- Food and drink labelling, packaging and materials
- Processes
- Additives and contaminants
- Consumer protection
- Food hygiene
- Health and safety
- Waste management
