Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published new guidelines on how it will communicate with both the food industry and the general public during food incidents.

The FSA has described a food incident as “any event where, based on the information available, there are concerns about actual or suspected threats to the safety or quality of food that could require intervention to protect consumers’ interests”, meaning contamination of food in the production chain or through environmental pollution.

According to the FSA, the new guidelines set out how the agency will work with all those involved in a food incident - including companies, local authorities and trade associations - “to deliver effective communications and best protect public health”.

The FSA has worked closely with a panel representing food processors and retailers, as well as independent experts, to draw up a range of food incident guidelines, including the new protocol on communication.

There have been more than 5,000 food and feed related incidents since the FSA was set up in 2000, most of which had been resolved quickly and efficiently through working together with the industry and with local authorities, said the FSA.

The new guidelines state: “We will explain in straightforward terms what the risk is, what we know about the affected product, and whether there are gaps in our knowledge.

“We will be restrained and proportionate in what we say and attempt through our use of language to avoid causing needless concern or worry.

“The agency will also strive to be proportionate when giving detailed information about the substance responsible for the incident and will be conscious of the need to avoid giving unnecessary or irrelevant facts about its effects in other contexts.”

The agency will, however, continue to name the companies concerned by potential food scares, “even those who have sold products on in good faith or were unwitting receivers of affected goods” in order to “give people as much information as possible so that they can know who produced the product and where it may have been purchased”.

The FSA says it will continue to work with the companies concerned to draw up the information it communicates to the public about the potential food incident.