The European Commission revealed a further commitment to food safety and the consumer when Commissioner David Byrne this week announced much tougher measures - including criminal sanctions - to strengthen food and feed safety controls.
The EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection stressed the importance of the proposal on Wednesday when he said: "The regulation on official food and feed controls is one of the main objectives I promised to deliver on. It will streamline previously weak and scattered controls and strengthen consumer protection by giving both Member States and the Commission tougher enforcement tools.
Ultimately, the regulation will significantly improve our ability to manage the food and feed chain, making it possible to provide ever safer food for Europe's consumers."
Consumer food safety has been high on the agenda in Brussels since recent food scares across Europe have corroded consumer trust in food. According to the Commission, controls of food and feed are, and will continue to be, primarily a task for Member States. However, by introducing performance criteria for competent authorities and a harmonised EU-wide approach to the design and development of control systems in the member states, the proposed regulation aims to reinforce the verification of compliance with food and feed law at all stages of production, processing and distribution.
This includes the introduction of management principles (documented control procedures and internal audits) and stricter rules on the accreditation of laboratories. In addition, national control plans with specific operational criteria on elements like staff training and documented control procedures will have to be established.
Audits by the Commission's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) - the Directorate of the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection - will evaluate performance against these control plans. In addition to current requirements for contingency plans in the feed and veterinary sectors, contingency plans for food crises must also be established and staff suitably trained to implement these plans, stressed the Commission.
The proposal establishes a common regime for controls on food and feed imports, basing the control frequency on risk. This means that for products that are known to present a particular risk, such as aflatoxins in some nuts, the sampling frequency at import may be more stringent than for products with a lower risk profile. Currently, uniform import procedures exist mainly for food and feed of animal origin.
The proposal also allows for the possibility of delegating specific defined control tasks to non-governmental control bodies, for example delegating the examination of official samples to defined and authorised laboratories. Criteria for analysis and accreditation of official laboratories currently exist only for food and feed. The proposal extends these to the veterinary sector.
The EU's role will continue to consist of audits by the FVO, verifying the efficiency of the control systems in the Member States and auditing the compliance or equivalence of third country legislation and control systems with EU rules. The main development in the FVO's role will be a move away from focusing on individual production establishments towards evaluating the overall operation of national control systems. Where there are specific problems to address, the FVO will inspect these situations in addition to the general audit, as is currently the practice. The proposal extends the FVO's role in third countries, so that inspections can be carried out in the food and plant health sectors in addition to current feed and veterinary inspections.
Turning to enforcement, the Commission proposal would give tougher enforcement measures for member states when serious offences against EU feed and food law are committed intentionally or through gross negligence. The proposal has outlined such a list and includes, for example, that the illegal handling and placing on the market of specified risk materials would be classified as a criminal offence.
The proposal also provides for enforcement measures at EU level. Where the Commission has proof that a Member State's control system is inadequate, the new legislation would allow the Commission to take interim measures "to ensure the protection of human health, animal health, animal welfare and the environment", writes the Commission. The measures - which would include suspending the right to place food and feed on the market - would be taken in co-operation with the Member States within the Standing Committee, or in serious cases on the Commission's own initiative.
On the topic of developing countries - this week under scrutiny as the world prepares for the Doha negotiations - third countries exporting to the EU are already now required to present guarantees that products exported to the EU meet EU standards. Apparently, the proposal introduces a number of activities, particularly training and twinning projects, to make it easier for developing countries to implement EU requirements for food and feed controls. These activities will be organised as part of the external aid programmes and will primarily focus on the countries listed by the Development Aid Committee of the OECD.
So how will all these changes be funded? At the moment, feed and food safety controls account for about €3 million in the annual EU budget. Implementing all of the proposed measures would increase this amount to approximately €16 million annually.
The new proposal will now be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for approval but the Commission is hoping for a speedy conclusion "since the regulation contains important elements of consumer protection".