Locations: London
Homepage: food.gov.uk

Departments

• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
• Department for Education
• Department for Transport
• Department for Work and Pensions
• Department of Health
• Export Credits Guarantee Department
• Food Standards Agency
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Home Office
• Ministry of Justice
• Office for National Statistics

Food Standards Agency

Putting consumers first

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food. The FSA’s remit covers food safety, nutrition and protecting the interests of consumers in relation to food. The FSA is an independent Government Department, ultimately accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Health.

Operational Research at the FSA

As part of the FSA’s Analytical Services Division, the OR unit provides support across all areas of FSA business. The OR unit is engaged in a varied and expanding range of the FSA’s work, including:

• Developing risk profiling models to assist in the targeting of local authority food hygiene inspections more towards high risk premises.
• Support Communications Division in the targeting of communications towards high risk consumer groups, currently focusing on the salt campaign.
• Risk assessment modelling of foodborne diseases to increase understanding of the interventions that could have the greatest impact in reducing foodborne disease.
• Analysis and modelling to understand the impact of changes to processes and systems. A current project is to support a review of BSE controls.
• Providing support to annual and strategic planning. This work involves prioritisation, resource allocation and where to spend monies for greatest impact. Cost/benefit models are being developed for this.
• Analysis of strategic risks.
• Support emergency planning.

Methods in recent use include forecasting, multi-variate analysis (cluster analysis, linear regression, logistic regression etc.), multi-criteria decision analysis, probabilistic risk assessment models, cost/benefit models and systems thinking.

What to expect

The branch was set up in March 2005 and has seen a rapid expansion in its work areas since its introduction. We have six OR professionals. The FSA is located in Holborn, Central London, close to Covent Garden. We actively encourage career development, providing training and development opportunities to meet individuals’ needs.