Chair of the Food Standards Agency, Professor Susan Jebb, has highlighted the importance of evolution in the regulatory body to continue combatting future food safety challenges.

Last week, Professor Susan Jebb, who was reappointed for a second term of FSA office, was speaking at City University’s Food Thinkers, where she recognised the "unprecedented challenges" facing food safety and food safety regulators.

The FSA chair said that amid global conflict and financial pressures it is still possible to achieve an efficient, trusted regulatory system and high food standards, but a lot of work will be needed. Jebb also highlighted the role new technologies should play in evolving regulation. 

I’m very clear that people need to be at the heart of this – people as consumers, people as employees, and people as citizens, making decisions about the society we live in," said Jebb.

Jebb added: “Regulators need to act on behalf of citizens to set the rules, monitor that they are being followed, and take strong enforcement action when they are not. They need to set the guardrails that protect the public from unscrupulous operators, while also supporting the well-intentioned actors to do the right thing. We need to ensure the regulatory framework supports businesses by upholding standards, without adding unnecessary barriers to innovation or unjustified extra costs to consumers.”

You can read the full speech here.