Brussels, 17/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 16 June, another step was taken towards protecting consumer health throughout the food chain and defending the interests of bone fide operators who are having to pay the price for dishonest operators committing fraud in the food industry. Parliament and Council negotiators reached political agreement on the draft regulation of May 2013 to strengthen official monitoring and make it more transparent from the farm to plate to ensure full compliance with EU legislation (see EUROPE 11411).
The agreement reached still needs to be approved by Parliament and the Council. The agreement stipulates that the regulation draws up a general framework in a single text that brings together all the different controls on foodstuffs, animal feed, plant health, pesticides, animal welfare, geographical indications and organic farming. The regulation will introduce random checks to tackle fraudulent or misleading practices and also set out the conditions for importing animals and products from third countries. It also makes provision for Commission checks in both member state and third countries.
This step forward is in response to the scandal involving horsemeat sold as beef in ready-made lasagne, which made the headlines at the beginning of 2013, even though a draft regulation was already being drawn up before the scandal broke out (see EUROPE 10996 and 10796). Giovanni La Via, the chair of the Parliament's environment committee, was delighted and said: “After the horse meat scandal, consumers had serious questions about the traceability of food and the integrity of the meat supply chain. This text will address these concerns and restore confidence”. Karin Kadenbach (S&D, Austria), the rapporteur, stated: “This regulation is one of the most important pieces of food safety legislation of this legislature”.
Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis welcomed the agreement, stating that the new regulation would be “future-proof”. “It will allow control and enforcement action requirements to be adjusted over time to factor”, he said, adding: “For the first time the comprehensive framework will also be applicable to controls performed to verify compliance with EU rules on plant health” which would help make progress in the field of animal welfare by creating dedicated reference centres.
The agreement will be submitted for approval at the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the European Union (Coreper) on 22 June and the environment committee's forthcoming meeting on 21 June or in September. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)