Proposals aimed at streamlining EU food safety and animal welfare legislation were unveiled yesterday, aimed at making it easier to identify abuses and health risks.
The most important aspect of the new proposals, however, is food safety
EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Tonio Borg told a press conference in Brussels that, following the horsemeat scandal, “there is clearly room for improvement even though no health risk emerged”.
The new measures, which still require the green light from the European Parliament and member states, strengthens the EU’s enforcement of health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain.
They respond to calls for simplification of legislation and smarter regulation to reduce the administrative burden on operators.
There are 70 pieces of legislation covering the food chain at the moment. The plan is to cut these down to just five different rules and reduce the red tape for processes and procedures carried out by farmers, breeders and food businesses.
The most important aspect of the new proposals, however, is food safety. The Commission wants to strengthen the instruments available to the authorities in member states to check compliance with EU legislation through more controls, inspections and tests.
In Malta, the consumers and competition authority is responsible for conducting tests to ensure the safety of all local and imported food. Under the new rules, tests will have to become more rigid and frequent. Animal welfare is also being given priority through a single piece of legislation to regulate animal health based on the principle that prevention is better than cure.
This includes improved standards and the provision of an EU-wide system to better detect and control disease, and tackle health, food and feed safety risks in a coordinated way.
The agri-food industry is the second largest economic sector in the EU, employing over 48 million people and being worth some €750 billion a year.
Europe is already considered to have the highest food safety standards in the world.