The idea
Downsize the Food Standards Agency and reduce its remit to what its name suggests – testing and analysing food for safety standards, as regards additives and adulterants. Remove the remit for the FSA to produce ever more hectoring propanganda regarding what food we should eat and how much (and for all I know how and when we should eat it).
Why is it important?
According to its own website, "The Food Standards Agency is an independent Government department set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food.
Everything we do reflects our vision of Safe food and healthy eating for all."
The patronising "healthy eating for all" tag causes the FSA to spend millions on pointless campaigns which are generally ignored by their target audience; people who wish toand can afford to eat "healthily" will do so anyway, while those who wish to subsist on doner kebabs and crisps are vanishingly likely to be swayed by cheerful advice on how many grapes to eat per day. Let the FSA concern itself with water in sliced ham; let the public concern itself with how much ham they eat.