Whether imported or home-grown, high EU food standards apply.
The EU food strategy has three core elements – legislation on the safety of food and animal feed; sound scientific advice on which to base decisions; and enforcement and control. The legislation is comprehensive – covering animal feed as well as food, and extending to food hygiene. It applies the same high standards across the EU.
The general rules for all food and feed are supplemented by special measures in areas where specific consumer protection is justified, as in the use of pesticides, food supplements, colourings, antibiotics or hormones. There are specific standards applying to adding vitamins, minerals and similar substances to foods. The legislation also extends to products in contact with foodstuffs, such as plastic packaging. Common EU labelling rules enable us more readily to identify ingredients to which we may be allergic, and to know for sure what terms like ‘low fat’ and ‘high fibre’ actually mean.
Accommodating diversity and transition
While this EU framework for food safety is a shared one, it accommodates diversity. The EU takes great care to ensure that traditional foods are not forced off the market by its food standards, that innovation is not stifled, and that quality does not suffer.
When new members join the EU and therefore enter the EU single market, transitional measures may be needed to allow them time to catch up with the EU's high food safety standards. However, foodstuffs which do not meet EU standards cannot be sold outside those countries in the meantime.
He can have his own passport and travel with you.
Keeping animals safe
The principles applied to animals are the same as for food. They can be moved freely across the EU. However, animal health and welfare standards must be met not just on the farm, but also during transport. When there are outbreaks of animal diseases, the EU steps in quickly if necessary to stop this trade.
An EU initiative led to the introduction of 'pet passports' to enable people to take their pets with them when they travel. However, to prevent diseases spreading, precautions apply to pets just as they do to other animals.
Rapid alerts nip risks in bud
In order to nip problems from potentially unsafe food in the bud, the EU operates a rapid alert system to avoid exposing consumers to the risk of food poisoning. This system will also spot whether foodstuffs contain banned substances or excessive amounts of high-risk substances, such as residues of veterinary medicines in meat or carcinogenic colourings in food.
When a threat is spotted, alerts go out across the EU. It may be enough to stop a single batch, but, if necessary, all shipments of a particular product from the farm, factory or port of entry will be stopped. Products already in warehouses and shops may be recalled.
Basing decisions on sound science
Science is the essential foundation on which the EU bases decisions on food. An independent agency based in Parma in Italy, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), provides advice when legislation is being drafted and when policymakers are dealing with a food safety scare.
In deciding what to do, the Commission applies the precautionary principle. In other words, it will act without waiting for scientific certainty if the scientists say there is at least a potential danger.
Enforcement and control
The Commission enforces EU feed and food law by checking that EU legislation has been properly incorporated into national law and implemented by all EU countries, and through on-the-spot inspections in the EU and outside.
Here, too, it has a specialist agency to help – the Commission’s Food & Veterinary Office (FVO) based at Grange in Ireland. The FVO can check individual food production plants, but its main task is to check that both EU governments and those of other countries have the necessary machinery in place for checking that their own food producers are sticking to the EU’s high food safety standards.
