Brussels, 14/06/2010 (Agence Europe)- EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner John Dalli opened EU Vet Week 2010 on Monday 14 June, focusing this year on “Animals + Humans = Health”. “Today, we take it for granted that we know the full history of a piece of beef or that we can trace individual sheep in the EU and food products throughout the whole food chain. This level of animal health protection and food safety was not achieved overnight. It took years to arrive at a robust and comprehensive legal framework and to develop the necessary tools that would strengthen our food chain”, explained the commissioner. The third EU Vet Week focuses on traceability throughout the food chain as a prerequisite for animal health and welfare. Traceability, the ability to follow animals or food products throughout their lifecycle -from the moment they are born or produced until they end up on our plate: from farm to fork- has been at the forefront of health standards following food crises like mad cow disease, and EU food standards are a crucial component of the European model, explained Dalli.
EU Vet Week started with the signing by John Dalli and Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE), of a memorandum of understanding on facilitating the achievement of common communication goals globally for the World Vet Year (2011). A conference on the benefits of food labelling, identification and traceability was held on Monday and Tuesday, and Dalli asked participants to focus on the benefits of traceability to ensure they are turned into economic benefits. The Spanish environment, countryside and marine minister, Elena Espinosa Mangana, said high food safety was vital to ensure international competitiveness. EU Vet Week events in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe should help bring the veterinary world closer to farmers and help Europeans become aware of the high levels of protection in the EU. Espinosa said that EU Vet Week provided a unique opportunity for publicising the EU's achievements on animal identification and traceability, boosting the European farming model and highlighting the methods used (labelling, traceability and animal registers). She said huge efforts had been made and the EU had reached high levels of quality and safety in farming and must now ensure that the added value of this makes EU food production more competitive. Consumer awareness must be raised. (C-C.G./transl.fl)