EC outlines plans for new European food authority
The European Commission will next month publish its legislative proposals for a European Food Authority (EFA), which it hopes will be up and running by 2002.
The EC envisages a body that is transparent to the public and independent of industrial and political interests. It wants it to become "the automatic first port of call when scientific information on food safety and nutrition is sought or problems have been identified".
The authority will concentrate on providing scientific advice, while the EC will remain responsible for risk management in terms of recommending legislation and controls.
As this role will involve the EFA gathering and analysing information, the authority is expected to develop a network of international contacts with centres of scientific excellence, with national scientific agencies and institutions in charge of food safety, and with laboratories and consumer groups.
As well as communicating its findings to governments and consumers, the EFA will be expected to operate a rapid alert system when urgent food-safety problems are identified and to develop and operate food-safety monitoring and surveillance programmes.
The authority will also be asked to identify gaps in research, and will have its own budget to commission such work in response to emergencies.
Its task will be to follow the food chain from farm to plate, taking in both the agricultural and veterinarian aspects of food production along with industrial processes, storage, distribution and retailing. As well as nutrition, it will also cover animal health and welfare and some environmental and chemical aspects where they overlap with food safety.
The plans for the EFA were outlined in a consultation paper on food safety published this January, which also detailed over 80 measures intended to improve and streamline existing EC legislation on food over the next few years. The European Council and Parliament are due to ratify the proposals in December 2001.
The proposals and responses to the public consultation on them can be viewed on the Web site, http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/index\_en.html.
by Angela Frewin
