EU tightens food hygiene rules

The European Commission is in the news again this week with the latest proposal to strengthen food safety in the Member States. According to a statement released on Tuesday, the Commission is to revamp official controls relating to the hygiene of food of animal origin.

The proposal, one of five others that make up the so-called 'hygiene package'​ of measures foreshadowed in the action plan of the Commission's White Paper on Food Safety, provides for revised rules for official controls on fresh meat, live bivalve molluscs, and milk and milk products. The central aim, writes the Commission, is to ensure a high level of protection for consumers, giving enhanced guarantees for the safety of products of animal origin.

With regards to meat, the proposal integrates the latest opinions of the Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures related to public health, implementing a science-based approach to meat inspection. It also implements a risk-based approach to meat inspection, aimed at protecting the consumer from all relevant hazards linked to the consumption of meat, and integrates the "farm to fork" approach into the meat inspection system, establishing a continuous flow of information between primary production and slaughterhouses.

The new proposal also creates a clear division of responsibilities between the slaughterhouse operator and the competent authorities, and brings meat inspection legislation into line with forthcoming EU legislation particularly in the fields of hygiene, zoonoses and official feed and food controls.

For live bivalve molluscs, the proposal identifies what needs to be done by the competent authority in order to ensure the safety of these products. This includes the setting up of a monitoring programme of harvesting areas to check the microbiological quality of live bivalve molluscs, the presence of toxin-producing plankton and the presence of chemical contamination.

As regards milk and milk products, the proposal aims to ensure that where raw milk fails to meet the required health standards, corrective action is taken at farm level, and that milk that might constitute a hazard to human health cannot be delivered for human consumption.

For further information on the proposal visit the Commission website​.