Monitoring Activities of the European Commission in the field of food

safety: A short overview

1. Introduction

The European Commission (EC) monitoring activities in the field of food safety
take different shape in specific areas, and are performed by different
departments and European Union (EU) agencies. As an outcome of these
monitoring activities, different reports are published on regular bases, most of the
time with yearly frequency.

On the other hand, the EC may enforce current EU law in the field of food safety
by taking to the EU Court of Justice contraventions to those regulations. These
are rare cases, and actually most of the situations when the EC enforces food
law takes the form of legislative instruments that represent the reaction of the EC
to food safety related issues that require the application of a specific regulatory
framework.

The approach taken in this assessment is to systematically describe the

monitoring activities and the enforcement activities carried out by the EC in the
field of food safety during 2006. Those will be individually assessed as to how
they would be useful to the competent authority of a theoretical EU country or
region when performing its own duties.
2. EC monitoring activities in the field of food safety in 2006

2.1. Surveillance Systems.

2.1.1. Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Annual Report.

a. Review.

The RASFF was established under Regulation (EC) 178/20021 as a network

involving EU Member States (MS) and also those from the European Economic
Area (EEA). Its principle of functioning is quite easy but at the same time involves
a complex networking activity between its 30 members (EC, 2006a): whenever a
member of the network has information regarding a food related human health
risk, this is notified to the EC, which in turn will spread the information to the rest
of the members of the network.

In 2006, there were 2923 notifications, 934 of which were considered as alert
(i.e. rapid action by the competent authorities required) and 1989 as information
(i.e. no rapid action but need to be aware of, as the product has not reach the
market of the country). The RASFF report provides a comprehensive
classification of different categories of hazards, considering the specific nature of
this, and also of food products involved in the identified risk. On the other hand, it
also provides specific information on the source of the food with the problem, and
on the way to properly identify the concerned foodstuff. It also provides an
assessment of the number of notifications by country or region.

b. Usefulness for the competent authority of a given country or

region.

The RASFF notification system itself provides an useful tool when performing the
duties of any competent authority in the field of food safety. It provides a timely
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Regulation (EC) 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January2002 laying down
the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and
laying down procedures in matters of food safety.

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warning on specific products that may be marketed in the theoretical country or
territory, making able a prompt and effective reaction when controlling this.

On the other hand and from a retrospective point of view, it can help to assess
whether the interventions carried out by the competent authority where properly
done. Also but to a lesser extent, to identify what products originated from the
theoretical country or region may have reached another EU MS escaping the
control of the competent authority in the theoretical country or region.

2.1.2. The Community Summary Report on Trends and Sources of

Zoonoses, Zoonotic Agents, Antimicrobial Resistance and Foodborne
Outbreaks in the European Union.

a. Review.

In 2006, twenty-four Member States submitted information on the occurrence of

zoonoses, zoonotic agents, antimicrobial resistance and food-borne outbreaks to
the European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Further information on zoonoses cases in humans to produce this report was
also acquired from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC).

The information covered 17 diseases (EFSA, 2006), providing comprehensive

data on the incidence of this diseases and the numbers of outbreaks in the
different EU member states. Also and in relation to the more important zoonotic
agents, the report provides also data on the different foodstuffs where analysis
on the presence of relevant zoonotic agents was performed.

b. Usefulness for the competent authority of a given country or

region.

This report is a useful tool which would aid the competent authority from the
theoretical country or region to allocate resources for the implementation of its
duties in specific food sectors. It can serve as guidance on what particular food
industries may need stricter vigilance on the microbiological criteria compliance

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on their products, as those would be more frequently involved in the occurrence
of outbreaks. Retrospectively, it would also serve as a verification tool on the
effectiveness of the enforcement work carried out by the authority, as the
ultimately outcome of this should be the reduction in the occurrence of zoonotic
incidences.

2.1.3. Animal Disease Notification System (ADNS) Report.

a. Review.
The ADNS is a reporting system for registration and documentation of several
features of outbreaks of important animal diseases, so called notifiable animal
diseases (EC, 2006b).
The total number of notifications made in 2006 is 3787, which represent a
primary or secondary outbreak. Animal disease outbreaks notified through this
system in 2006, include: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), avian
influenza both highly pathogenic and low pathogenic strains, swine vesicular
disease, classical swine fever both in domestic pigs and in wild boars, Newcastle
disease, infectious haemotopoietic necrosis, infectious salmon anaemia, viral
haemorrhagic septicaemia and equine encephalomyelitis (West Nile Fever).
The report provides information of number of outbreaks not only on a country
basis, but also on a regional basis. It does also provide the data per month of
occurrence.

b. Usefulness for the competent authority of a given country or

region.
From a purely food safety point of view, the usefulness of this data may be
restricted to that on BSE, as this may be the only food borne zoonotic agent
presented in the report. However, information on the occurrence of animal
diseases can also be essential for the competent authority of a theoretical
country or region, as most of the times controls on the imported foods of animal
origin do also require the safety of the products from an animal health point of
view. Thus, the sourcing of this from disease free areas is fundamental when
protecting the health of the national or regional herds.

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2.2. Audits and Inspections from the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO)

a. Review.
The role of the FVO is to verify compliance with the requirements of EU food
safety and quality, animal health and welfare and plant health legislation within
the European Union and on compliance with EU import requirements in third
countries exporting to the EU (EC, 2006c).
In 2006, the FVO carried out 255 inspections for compliance with EU law on food
and feed safety, animal health and welfare and plant health. It performed them
not only in the EU member states but also including EU pre-adhesion countries
and third countries.
The report provides detailed information in areas where deficiencies where
observed. It provides detail on what particular activities were not in compliance
with EU law, including the performance of official controls.
On the other hand, the so called Country Profiles which are also available from
the FVO website (EC, 2008a) serve as a more specific monitoring tool on the
follow up of the outcome of audits in recent years.

b. Usefulness for the competent authority of a given country or

region.

This report would probably be the most useful tool for the competent authority
from a theoretical country or region, as it is the direct representation of the
auditing activities carried out by the EC through the FVO in the different EU MS
and also in third countries. If aids the competent authority when identifying their
own areas for improvement (if subjected to FVO inspection in 2006) or will help
when reflecting on whether the activities identified as deficient are also occurring
the theoretical country or region.

3. EC Enforcement Activities.

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The EC enforcement activities of EU law in the field of food safety can take
different forms, and its implementation can have variable impact. Sometimes
these measures aim at protecting the consumer or, in other cases, to remove no
longer necessary protective measures (e.g. lifting of the UK beef embargo in
2006).
These measures can be easily followed up through the press release area of the
Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General (EC, 2008b). An overview
of 2006 activities, include:

References
EC (2006a) The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Annual Report
2006. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
2007. ISBN 978-92-79-05477-8

EC (2006b) Animal Disease Notification System Annual report 2006. Annual

report on outbreaks of notifiable animal diseases in the EU Member States and
other participating countries during 2006. Published by Directorate D - Animal
Health and Welfare, D1 - Animal Health and Standing Committees. European
Commission.
Web resource available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/diseases/adns/adns_report2006_en.pdf

EC (2006c) Food and Veterinary Office - Annual Report 2006. Published by the
Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General Food and Veterinary Office.
Web resource available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/fvo/annualreports/ann_rep_2006_en.pdf

EC (2008a) The Food and Veterinary Office – Country Profiles. Web resource
reviewed on the 3rd of March 2008 at:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/fvo/country_profiles_en.cfm

EC (2008b) Press release notification system of the Directorate General Health

and Consumer Protection. Web resource reviewed on the 3rd of March 2008 at:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/press_rel/press_rel_ff_en.cfm

EFSA (2006) The Community Summary Report on Trends and Sources of

Zoonoses, Zoonotic Agents, Antimicrobial Resistance and Foodborne Outbreaks
in the European Union in 2006, The EFSA Journal (2007), 130.

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