Brussels, 09/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 5 June, the European Parliament, in adopting the report by Horst Schnellhardt (EPP-ED, Germany) by 556 votes to 67, with 19 abstentions, gave the go-ahead to amendment of the 2004 regulation on food hygiene to cut red tape for micro enterprises, without lowering the high standard of foods safety in the EU.
The Parliament agrees with the Commission proposal to exempt micro-enterprises from the requirement to put in place, implement and maintain permanent procedures based on the hazard analysis and critical control points (“HACCP”) principles, given that in some food businesses, food safety can be ensured by correctly implementing food hygiene requirements without recourse to HACCP. However, as a safeguard, MEPs call for national authorities to be allowed to decide whether micro- or even medium-sized companies should stick to the HACCP procedures. The amended text states that the decision by competent authorities should be on the basis of regular hazard analyses and not only on the basis of the size of the company. (A.N./transl. rt)