UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) / Committee on Toxicity (COT)
UK governmentFood Standards Agency, a UK government department, and its Committee on Toxicity advisers · United Kingdom
Visit the source site · Audited 2026-10-14
Who pays for it
The FSA's 2024–25 accounts report £48.830 million operating income, including £48.293 million contract revenue and £0.537 million other income, against £193.049 million operating expenditure; no statement-specific funding was identified.
Status: Labeled
The FSA has public scientific-adviser conflict registers and a risk-assessment remit, while it remains subject to government funding and appointments. Its COT material is labeled as UK food and chemical-risk guidance, not as a medication-in-milk database.
How SafeMomma uses it
We use the COT mercury assessment for food and environmental exposure context, not for medication transfer into breast milk.
The audit
- Who controls it
- The FSA is a non-ministerial government department established under the Food Standards Act 1999 and says it acts independently of ministers. Ministers appoint the Chair and most Board members; the sampled content is a COT mercury statement.
- Money
- The FSA's 2024–25 accounts show £48.830 million operating income, £48.293 million in contract revenue and £0.537 million other income, against £193.049 million operating expenditure. No funding specific to the COT statement was identified.
- Conflict rules
- The FSA's adviser policy, updated 24 July 2026, requires declarations, assessment, records and public registers; advisers may be limited or recused. The COT register was last updated 19 August 2026, but this review did not match each declaration to the mercury statement.
- Method
- The COT statement cites studies and earlier EFSA and JECFA assessments, gives exposure estimates and uncertainty, and lists search terms. It is a narrative chemical-risk assessment, not a preregistered systematic review with a full search-flow or standardized clinical evidence grade.
- Dates on its pages
- The maternal-health mercury statement was published 15 December 2025 and cites references through 2025; that date does not establish a regular recheck schedule.
- Political exposure
- The FSA has a statutory independence framework, while its remit, Board appointments and budgets remain exposed to government decisions. No political intervention or pressure-driven change to this statement was identified.
- Money exposure
- Public funding and contract revenue are documented, but no commercial sponsor or industry payment for the statement was identified. The adviser policy requires disclosure and management of industry interests; the review did not match each COT declaration to the statement.
- Track record
- The 2025 COT assessment judged UK population risk from estimated aggregate mercury exposure to be low against EFSA tolerable weekly intake values and identified pregnant and breastfeeding women as sensitive groups. This is food and environmental exposure analysis, and no correction or retraction of the statement was identified; none of b1-b5 supplied a separate FSA test finding.
Where this comes from
Incentive exposure describes pressure from money or politics, not whether the source is right. Funding alone does not show influence.