An overhaul of EU food hygiene legislation will require farmers to carry out more extensive checks on their holdings. In future all categories of food premises will have to be approved, it has emerged.
The changes are being pursued as EU food hygiene legislation is consolidated into four new regulations, replacing the 17 existing directives.
In addition, all food companies and farmers will be required to carry out "hazard analysis" to identify where food safety problems may arise. The new regulations will simplify the current complex regulations and make a single, transparent hygiene policy for all food products and all food operators from the farm to the table, according to the European Commission.
The first two regulations are devoted to hygiene rules: one places primary responsibility for the safety of food on producers; the second specifies hygiene rules for food of animal origin because animal produce has additional, inherent risks over other foods. Regulation three lays down detailed rules for controls on products of animal origin, and the fourth regulation deals with animal health requirements.
"These are all proposals. How much will survive, we wait to see. The concept of consolidating 17 directives into four is really to be welcomed. One of the big mysteries with the EU is `what legislation applies to me?'," said Mr Ray Ellard, chief environmental health specialist with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
Mr Ellard said the regulations would impose extra costs on the agri-food sector with the possible exception of the animal sector. "I suppose there is always a cost if you put extra controls in place. There is also a related benefit. Do the benefits outweigh the costs?" he asked.
For the first time, regulations extend back to the farm in relation to hazard identification and require meticulous evaluation of where food safety problems may occur. Self-regulation will extend to the whole industry and there is traceability, so products can be traced back and withdrawn from the market.
Guides to good hygiene practice for the catering, retailing, processing and drinks manufacturing industries are to be extended to the whole food chain and sector-specific guidelines will be put in place by the sectors themselves, he explained.
However, there is a proposal that for meat-cutting plants controls by trained meat inspectors acting under a vet will be sufficient, rather than veterinary inspection. This may have significant implications for the Irish meat sector, which is heavily reliant on vets.
"The most important thing is that it brings a lot of order in a vast patchwork of existing legislation which has evolved over the years," explained Ms Beate Gminder, spokeswoman for EU health and consumer protection commissioner Mr David Byrne. "It recasts them and puts them on a proper footing which will allow businesses to adapt more easily because it's more logical," she said.
Since 1964, legislation was developed in response to the needs of the internal market but it was not designed for the high health-protection standards now required. "We have learnt our lesson from the food crises of the 90s," Mr Byrne said in July when outlining the reform. The commission has adopted the regulations which now go to the European Parliament. They are predicted to come into effect by January 2004.