The European Commission has published proposals to change the current legislation governing all official controls in the food and agriculture industries.
The proposed plans will potentially affect all organisations involved in the production, manufacture, supply and regulation of food, feed, live animals, plants and plant reproductive material.
The Commission’s aim is to ensure a more consistent approach to official controls, such as inspection and approvals, throughout the food and agriculture sectors. The changes are also intended to support more sustainable and effective control systems across European Union (EU) member states.
The FSA is already in the process of consulting with stakeholders as part of a UK-wide programme across the food industry and with enforcement agencies to gather views on the potential impact of the proposed changes. These measures will reduce the legislation from approximately 70 pieces to five.
A significant development included in the proposals is a change to the way official controls are funded.
At present, the system for funding and charging is mainly left to the discretion of individual EU member states. Under the Commission’s proposed plans, member states would be expected to recover the full cost of official controls.
There would also be a major increase in the number of controls subject to mandatory charging. The Commission’s proposals include detailed measures for the calculation of fees and a mandatory exemption for micro-businesses. A micro-business is a business that employs less than 10 people, with a turnover of less than €2m.
Procedures and management of import controls across the plant, animal, feed and food chains are expected to be simplified and harmonised under the changes.
New rules regarding the level of information that government and local authorities will be expected to make available to businesses and the general public about official controls have also been proposed.
