Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Commission Report (COM(2023) 235), 5 May 2023
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Report from the Commission: On the overall operation of official controls carried out in EU countries (2021) to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products
The report is available on the EUR-Lex website (click on image). An additional Staff Working Document is available which includes a lot of date on the controls. See: COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT: Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION |
The following is the Executive Summary from the report:
This report covers the overall operation of EU countries’ official controls and the Commission’s control activities in 2021. These controls aim to ensure a high level of health protection and trust in the food chain, from farm to fork. They are an important way to verify that businesses are complying with their legal requirements so that EU consumers can be confident that the food they eat is safe. They are also key to enabling the smooth operation of safe trade in food, animals and plants, both within the EU and with non-EU countries.
National authorities are responsible for carrying out official controls. If businesses along the food chain do not comply with the relevant legislation, the national authorities are required to enforce the requirements, ensuring that businesses meet their obligations.
In 2021, there were 16.9 million entities within the scope of official controls and national authorities carried out nearly 5 million official controls on them. Based on these controls, around 1 million non-compliance issues were identified, leading to the application of nearly 500 000 administrative sanctions and almost 8 000 judicial actions.
The Commission verifies the EU countries’ implementation of official controls and enforcement activities. The reports from these Commission controls, which are published on the Commission's website, provide a clear picture of national authorities’ performance and are a significant part of the review process that ensures that EU legislation is fit for purpose.
The Commission’s controls show that, overall, national authorities have the necessary systems in place to monitor and ensure that businesses are implementing EU requirements and to act where there are non-compliance issues. In some EU countries, these controls identified shortcomings in official control systems, indicating that there was room for improvement. In these cases, the Commission addresses recommendations to the national authorities.
The Commission systematically follows up on its recommendations and, where necessary, makes use of other enforcement tools. In addition, it supports EU countries by providing technical assistance and training through the Better Training for Safer Food initiative and technical meetings of expert networks.
Since 2020, the national authorities have been required to report the results of their controls in a harmonised electronic format. However, not all EU countries have yet been able to submit all their data in the format required. The Commission will Continue to work with national authorities to improve the completeness of data for future annual reports.
During 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect the ability of the national authorities and the Commission to carry out their controls and audits as planned.
