The Agriculture Council yesterday decided on new official controls to ensure the hygiene of food of animal origin destined for human consumption within the fifteen member states of the European Union.
The proposal is one of five making up the so-called "hygiene package" of measures foreshadowed in the action plan of the Commission's White Paper on Food Safety. This Regulation, proposed by the Commission in July 2002, provides for revised rules for official controls on fresh meat, live bivalve molluscs, and milk and milk products. Its central aim, according to the EC, is to ensure a high level of protection for consumers, giving enhanced guarantees for the safety of products of animal origin. The Regulation is due to go back to the European Parliament this autumn for a Second Reading.
"Sound effective hygiene rules are the bottom line to ensure safe food. This Regulation will update the EU's rules on official hygiene controls of food of animal origin. Together with the other elements of the 'hygiene package' proposed by the Commission, it implements the principle of 'farm to fork' control and ensure a coherent and effective approach to food safety. I am grateful to Council and Parliament for their hard work on this legislation. I am sure they will continue to work constructively over the coming months to complete the job", said David Byrne, EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner.
With regards meat products, the proposed Regulation will include a number of procedures which aim to increase safety and hygiene. This will include the integration of the latest opinions of the Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures related to public health, as well as a risk-based approach to meat inspection, aimed at protecting the consumer from all relevant hazards linked to the consumption of meat.
The proposals also back up the integration of the "farm to fork" approach into the meat inspection system and the creation of a clear division of responsibilities between the slaughterhouse operator and the competent authorities.
Perhaps most importantly the proposals will bring meat inspection legislation into line with forthcoming EU legislation particularly in the fields of hygiene and official feed and food controls.
As regards milk and milk products, new rules aims to ensure that where raw milk fails to meet the required health standards, corrective action is taken at farm level, and that milk that might constitute a hazard to human health cannot be delivered for human consumption.
The "hygiene package" of proposals aims to merge, harmonise and simplify very detailed and complex hygiene requirements currently scattered over seventeen Directives.
According to the Agricultural Council the overall aim is to create a single, transparent hygiene policy applicable to all food and all food operators, together with effective instruments to manage food safety, and any possible future food crises, throughout the food chain. To help achieve this the body believes that food producers should bear primary responsibility for the safety of food, through the use of programmes for self-checking and modern hazard control techniques.
The hygiene proposals are subject to the co-decision procedure. Once adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, the Regulations will replace the Directive on the hygiene of foodstuffs (93/43) and sixteen product specific Council Directives.
Further information about the "hygiene package" can be found at: this link.