Food safety

EU food safety policy aims to ensure that:

• food and animal feed are safe and nutritious;
• food production and processing respect high hygiene and traceability standards;
• only safe products are allowed to be used throughout the food chain (e.g. veterinary medicines, plant protection products, food and feed additives, disinfectants, etc..);
• consumers are given clear information about the contents of their food (e.g. ingredients, food additives, etc.) and benefit from a safe food supply chain (traceability);
• there are high standards of plant and animal health, and animal welfare.

EU legislation covers the entire food chain — ‘ from farm to fork ’ — in an integrated way and applying a ‘ One Health ’ approach. It deals with safety aspects covering primary production, hygiene conditions in food processing, packaging, labelling and official controls on food safety compliance.

EU food safety policy is mainly governed by Articles 168 (public health) and 169 (consumer protection) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

This policy is evidence- and science-based, relying on independent, sound scientific advice given by the relevant EU agencies, notably:

• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA);
• European Medicines Agency (EMA) for veterinary medicinal products used in food-producing animals;
• European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for biocidal products, such as disinfectants, insecticides, etc.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety carries out audits, inspections and related non-audit activities to ensure that EU legislation on food and feed safety is properly carried out and enforced.

The EU has a rapid alert system — RASFF — to protect consumers from non-compliant food and feed, and if necessary, remove it from the market.

The 2020 ‘Farm to fork’ strategy is at the heart of the European Green Deal aiming to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally friendly. Maintaining high food safety standards in the EU is one of the main foundations of building a resilient and sustainable food system in the EU.

SEE ALSO

• Animal welfare
• Common agricultural policy (CAP)
• Consumer protection
• Environment
• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• Precautionary principle
• Public health
• Rural development
• Enforcing EU rules for the agri-food chain (summary)
• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) — ensuring safe food and animal feed in the EU (summary)
• European Green Deal (summary)
• ‘Farm to fork’ strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system (summary)
• Nutrition and health claims made on foods (summary)
• Food safety: overview (European Commission)
• Health and Food Audits and Analysis (European Commission)
• RASFF portal (European Commission)
• Food safety in the EU (Europa)
• European Food Safety Authority (website)
• One health (World Health Organization).