The future official food control in the EU countries - An overview of the Control Regulation (EU) No. 2017/625
Jan 14, 2019 - Foods
The future official food control in the EU countries - An overview of the Control Regulation (EU) No. 2017/625
Below we present some important aspects of the Control Regulation (EU) No. 2017/625. This will replace the current regulation on Official Controls (Regulation (EC) No. 822/2004) at the end of 2019. This should standardize and improve the requirements for official controls in the agricultural and food chain in EU countries.
A significant innovation of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 is the expansion of the scope; i.e., it applies not only to official controls of food and feed but also to:
- Animal health and welfare
- Organic production and eco-labeling
- GMOs for the purpose of food and feed production
- Animal by-products
- Plant protection/Plant protection products
Further key points of the regulation are:
Combating food fraud (Food-Fraud)
In the future, official controls should also increasingly combat food fraud (Food-Fraud). In addition to food safety, this aspect will also move more into the focus of state surveillance. According to Article 9 paragraph 2, the regulation states, “The competent authorities shall carry out official controls to detect... violations deliberately committed through fraudulent or misleading practices...”. However, there is currently no established definition for the term “fraud” in the field of food, and it is being intensively discussed at present.
Increased consideration of self-monitoring
Previously, certificates from private standards, such as IFS and BRC standards, were only partially considered during official controls. This was at the discretion of the competent authority. The new regulation states: “The competent authorities shall subject all businesses to official controls, taking into account, among other things, the reliability and results of the self-monitoring conducted by the operators, including, where applicable, private quality assurance mechanisms,...” (Article 9 paragraph 1 letter d). This means that companies with a good self-monitoring concept will be less frequently controlled by state authorities. The conduct of their own laboratory investigations by companies will also be considered by authorities during sample collection. The principle of official supervision “control of self-controls” is thus further strengthened.
Internet trade in food
The trade of goods on the internet is steadily increasing. According to the new regulation, competent authorities may anonymously order official samples without revealing their identity. Since it is not possible to leave an official counter-sample in such cases, the competent authorities take all measures upon receiving the samples to ensure that the right of entrepreneurs to a second expert opinion is maintained (Article 36). Internet traders must therefore be informed about the “sampling”.
Costs for official controls
The sensitive topic "financing of official controls" is regulated in Articles 79-91. The previous fees (import, slaughter animal inspection, etc.) remain and essential occasion controls, such as in the case of complaints, remain subject to fees. However, there are still predominantly no mandatory fees for regular controls. In the future, due to the new regulation, member states may charge fees for regular controls (polluter pays principle). It is likely that further states will charge fees for regular controls in the future.
Protection for “whistleblowers”
There is currently no comprehensive protection in Germany when employees (so-called whistleblowers) report grievances in companies to authorities. Under the new Control Regulation 2017/625, the member states are to ensure that individuals who report violations are protected from sanctions, discrimination, or other forms of unfair treatment.
Information and transparency for consumers
The publication of consumer protection and the introduction of transparency systems such as the "hygiene rating" system could also come more to the fore as a result of the Control Regulation. Such systems are already established in several EU countries (e.g., France, Denmark, Belgium...). Currently, it must be assumed that results will be published nationwide in Germany through food monitoring.
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