Brussels, 18/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's “Better Training for Safer Food Initiative” (BTSF), which trains officials who are called upon to monitor food safety in EU member states and third countries, is celebrating its fifth year of existence and can be pleased with its achievements. Since 2006, approximately 29,000 people have participated directly in training from some 180 countries worldwide for a total budget of €68 million, the European Commission states. To mark this anniversary, the Commission organised in Malta (16-18 November) a training workshop for Mediterranean nations on European standards for plant health controls.
“The initiative has been a considerable success since its launch 5 years ago”, the commissioner for health and consumer protection, John Dalli, said on this occasion, insisting however that they must not rest on their laurels. He went on to underline the need to meet the challenges to come. Such challenges were identified in November 2010: - the need to provide a level of training capable of responding to a high and increasing demand; the need to identify training priorities and target audiences more clearly, and to improve training quality; and the need to increase dissemination. To achieve this, the Commission plans to develop an online learning tool for basic and longer term training, create summer courses for instructors, and set up a post-graduate training centre for former participants.
The BTSF initiative administers training on legislation applicable to human food and animal feed, legislation and regulations on health and animal wellbeing, and phytosanitary rules. (AN/transl.jl)