Our regulatory strategy

Our regulatory strategy establishes how we will fulfill our role as a national regulator in Scotland.

The FSS regulatory strategy establishes how we will fulfill our role as a national regulator in Scotland, supporting delivery of a key FSS strategic priority to enable responsible food businesses to flourish.

This is outlined in our strategy document  ‘Shaping Scotland’s Food Future: Our Strategy to 2021’ which sets out our overall vision to create a food and drink environment in Scotland that benefits, protects and is trusted by consumers.

Scotland has a thriving food and drink sector which has a strong reputation both at home and abroad, and it is clear that a compliant food and drink industry is good for consumers as well as being good for business.  As a Scottish regulator working in line with the Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice, FSS have an important role to play in supporting the economic wellbeing and strong international reputation of our food and drink sector by ensuring it is underpinned by an effective and sustainable regulatory system for food safety and standards, whether operating in the domestic, EU or wider global markets.

In shaping our future food regulatory system to meet the needs and challenges of modern Scotland it will be important to retain the trust of consumers and businesses, ensuring that standards applied to food and feed production are internationally recognised, and that there is confidence in the way regulatory delivery is achieved to verify compliance.  Therefore, as part of our wider regulatory strategy programme, FSS is currently working with a range of stakeholders to review the current regulatory system to identify areas where changes may be required, so that it remains effective, efficient and risk-based in the future.