Europe Introduces Food Inspection Rules to Tackle Fraud

The European Parliament has adopted new rules on food safety and inspec­tion which aim to tackle fraud­u­lent prac­tices in the food indus­try across the EU.

Adopted at the March 15 ses­sion, the new mea­sures intro­duce tougher con­trols and food safety inspec­tions, as well as improved meth­ods for food trace­abil­ity.

Covering all stages of the agri-food chain, the rules will replace an ear­lier reg­u­la­tion on offi­cial con­trols that dates back to 2004. The new reg­u­la­tion has extended the scope to include con­trols on ani­mal feed, plant health, pes­ti­cide use, geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion rules, ani­mal wel­fare, and organic prod­ucts. These rules are part of a frame­work to be adopted by all EU mem­ber coun­tries and will enter into force by the end of this month, with mem­ber coun­tries required to apply the new rules by 2020.

In a European Parliament press release, Karin Kadenbach, the Austrian MEP (Member of European Parliament) respon­si­ble for the draft­ing of the leg­isla­tive pro­posal, revealed why the exist­ing rules needed to be revised: ​“After the horse meat scan­dal, con­sumers had seri­ous ques­tions about the trace­abil­ity of food, and the integrity of the meat sup­ply chain,” she explained. ​“The European Parliament strove to address these con­cerns and to end up with a text that allows com­pe­tent author­i­ties to effec­tively com­bat fraud­u­lent prac­tices.”

The meth­ods used for sam­pling, analy­sis, test­ing, and diag­no­sis are also clar­i­fied under the new reg­u­la­tion, as well com­mon rules for import con­trols of ani­mals, and ani­mal and plant prod­ucts at EU bor­ders.

In addi­tion to Europe’s horse meat scan­dal of 2013, there have been sev­eral cases of olive oil fraud uncov­ered in recent years in Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal. These have included fraud­u­lent activ­i­ties where low-qual­ity olive pomace oils have been sold and exported as extra vir­gin olive oil, or olives sourced from another coun­try were processed and sold as indige­nous olive oil.

The new EU rules just voted in also include pro­vi­sions allow­ing author­i­ties to react faster in cri­sis sit­u­a­tions, impose stricter enforce­ment mea­sures with stiff penal­ties for fraud­u­lent activ­i­ties or decep­tive prac­tices, and call for more con­trols in all sec­tors.

The reg­u­la­tion also intro­duces the require­ment for pro­ce­dures for receiv­ing infor­ma­tion about infringe­ments, as well as pro­tec­tion for whis­tle-blow­ers.

“I am also proud that Parliament man­aged to have the chap­ter on enforce­ment strength­ened, in par­tic­u­lar regard­ing the penal­ties to be applied in the event of inten­tional vio­la­tions of the rules,” added Kadenbach. ​“I trust that really deter­rent penal­ties will be a key tool to com­bat fraud in every area.”

The aim of the newly adopted rules is not only to pre­vent fraud in the EU food indus­try but also to restore con­sumer con­fi­dence in the safety and authen­tic­ity of the EU’s food prod­ucts.

• European Parliament


• European Parliament