Standards officers to grill food industry

By Nicola Carslaw BBC Consumer Affairs Correspondent

If you do not blow your own trumpet, nobody else will do it for you.

So this year's conference of the Trading Standards Institute has as its theme "making a difference where it matters".

It wants attention focused on the impact trading standards work has on local economies, the protection and education of consumers, and its support for people who are vulnerable or distressed - people who see officers' intervention or advice as a lifeline.

One session, on travel and tourism, is examining the recent success of low cost airlines, which are now facing competition from mainstream operators who are reducing their costs by selling over the internet.

Officers are trying to gauge how this will change the traditional package holiday.

Travel industry rules are also changing to ensure the sector's self-regulating body is appropriately equipped to govern its members.

Trading standards officers say they are trying to make a difference by insisting on transparency.

For example, they say they are constantly battling against what they see as misleading prices - along with the numerous problems that occur with holiday sales over the web.

Food for thought

Food, and enforcing the laws that govern its consumption and sale, also come under scrutiny.

The level of investment in the food industry in the UK runs into billions of pounds.

Thousands of jobs depend, arguably, upon trading standards teams maintaining a thriving food sector.

Trading standards officers are responsible for ensuring that labels do not lie and that our food "from plough to plate" is safe, healthy, nutritious.

On the conference;sa opening day, Tuesday, an address from Food Standards Agency chairman Sir John Krebs will look at the food industry's various consumer labels.

Sir John is not expected to be very enthusiastic about some of them.

Last year, the agency embarked on a review of schemes such as the red tractor, the red lion on eggs, and the RSPCA freedom foods logo, to name a few.

It said many consumers were not aware of these labelling schemes - or if they were, they tended to overestimate their significance.

Sir John's announcement is keenly awaited by consumer groups - many of which have said the red tractor mark is meaningless hype - as well as by farmers and the industry who fund the scheme and believe in it wholeheartedly.

Watching the watchers

Every year, trading standards officers complain that they are under-resourced and over-monitored.

This year is no exception.

The conference is asking some awkward questions about those who watch the watchdogs.

Fifteen different organisations monitor the trading standards service.

Officers think these auditors' insatiable appetite for statistics diverts limited time and resources into returning about eight thousand data figures a year.

The conference is asking if the monitors represent value for taxpayers' money - or merely serve to generate bureaucracy.

Officers are debating whether such close scrutiny really helps improve their service to businesses and to consumers - and wondering, too, just who is inspecting the inspectors.