With just a few exceptions, the number of official food controls and the human and financial resources allocated to them are decreasing across the EU, the BEUC warned on Monday 21 October.
Alarmed by this trend, which was highlighted in a report, the BEUC calls on governments to correct the situation and on the Commission to ensure that Member States' annual reports on the controls they are required to carry out are complete, easily accessible and comparable.
According to this report: - control staff reported that they did not have the necessary resources to carry out their task; - controls on foods most likely to cause food poisoning, such as eggs, milk and meat, are decreasing; - national reports make comparisons difficult or even impossible; - member States give little or no importance to labelling controls; - few countries publish the results of inspections of individual operators and inform consumers about hygiene standards in restaurants and food shops.
“Our report shows that national governments are regrettably cutting corners. Consumers then legitimately wonder whether governments are effectively ensuring that businesses play by the rules - and whether they have the means to do so”, says BEUC Director General, Monique Goyens.
Link to the report: http://bit.ly/35Pd7v4 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)