Europe’s new food safety order

© 2004-2005 William Charteris
www.billcharteris.com
www.imperialconsulting.net

The Consumer Health and Protection portfolio was first established in 1999 by Commission President Romano Prodi. In January 2000, the White Paper on Food Safety was published. It outlined a new EU food strategy that has now largely been put in place. Three of the legislative measures proposed therein form the backbone of the Community’s new food safety infrastructure. The first, Regulation 178/2002, was adopted on January 28 2002 and applies in full from January 1 2005. It set out the general principles of EU food law, provided the legal basis for the establishment of EFSA, and established a Rapid Alert System for the notification of food/feed-derived risks to human health and set down clear procedures for the handling by the Commission and the Member States of food safety emergencies and crises. The second, which comprises a package of five measures, was adopted on April 29 2004 and will come into effect on January 1 2006 (except for animal health rules). The package updates and consolidates the seventeen existing hygiene directives. It introduces a single, transparent hygiene policy applicable to all food (including imported food) throughout the food chain, reaffirms and clarifies that the primary legal responsibility for food safety lies with food business operators, mandates the use of the HACCP system by all non-primary food operators, and mandates the implementation of a system of product traceability and recall throughout the food chain. This package will be augmented by the adoption of the feed hygiene regulation in 2005, which will introduce a similar hygiene policy that is applicable to all animal feedstuffs (including imported feed) throughout the feed chain. The third, Regulation 882/2004, was adopted on April 29 2004 and will come into effect on January 1 2006. It introduces a longitudinally integrated system of risk monitoring and control across the entire food and feed chains (including imported food and feed) with associated performance criteria for national authorities and administrative enforcement measures in the event of non-compliance. It also mandates the provision of assistance to developing countries in meeting import requirements. It augments a range of existing controls already in place for BSE, zoonoses, etc. Collectively, the actions proposed in the White Paper represent the most significant advance in the development of an integrated food safety policy since the founding of the Community and constitute a credible basis for reinforcing consumer protection. The implementation of the legislative actions will necessarily raise costs throughout the food and feed chains. Higher food prices will be accepted by consumers only if they result in greater food safety and greater confidence in its control throughout the food chain. The effectiveness and robustness of the ‘new food safety order’ in this regard will be proven in the fullness of time. The enlargement of the Community will likely test it to the full.

This abstract is taken from a paper entitled 'An analysis of the main developments in EU food safety policy since 1999 that have helped to reinforce consumer protection', which was published on January 7, 2005. The paper comprises 5,500 words and 47 references. Individual copies of the paper may be requested by e-mail from the author.