TRACEABILITY REQUIREMENTS UNDER EU GENERAL FOOD LAW

EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Context

 Regulation EC/178/2002 of 28 January 2002 also known as the EU General Food Law  Aims at ensuring a high level of health

protection

 Aims to harmonise existing national requirements to ensure effective functioning of the internal market EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Context

To achieve these goals the Regulation  Establishes common principles and responsibilities    Lays down the general principles governing food

and feed safety

Establishes the European Food Safety Authority Applies to all stages of the production, processing and distribution of food and feed EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Context

General Requirements of Food Law  Food and feed safety requirements     Presentation requirements (labelling, packaging…) Food and feed business operator responsibilities MS responsibilities Traceability EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability

27/04/2020 EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability – Why?

 Recent food crisis (BSE, dioxins) demonstrated that the identification of the origin of feed and food is of prime importance for the protection of consumers  Risk management tool to ensure accurate withdrawals from the market and to provide information to consumers and operators EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability - Definition

 Laid down in Article 18 of the Regulation  Means the availability to trace and follow a food, feed, animal or substance through all stages of production, processing and distribution  Necessary to ensure that food or feed business, including an importer, can identify at least the business from which inputs have been supplied EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability - Requirements

 To have systems and procedures in place enabling operators to identify the immediate supplier and immediate customer of their products  To establish a link Supplier-Product (which products supplied from which suppliers)  To establish a link Customer-Product (which products supplied to which customers) EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability - Implementation

   All relevant information for traceability purpose should be kept First category of information (necessary)    Name, address of supplier and nature of products supplied Name, address of customer and products delivered Date of transaction/delivery Second category of information (highly recommended)    Volume or quantity Batch number, if any More detailed description of the product EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability - Implementation

     First category information shall be immediately available to the Authorities Second category information shall be available as soon as reasonably practicable No minimum period of time for keeping records is foreseen There are no standardised systems foreseen Mechanism adopted by operators shall ensure the delivery of the needed information upon request from the Authorities EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability – Exporters

    Does not have extra-territorial effect outside the EU The requirement covers all stages of production, processing and distribution in the EU, from the importer to the retail level Requires that food/feed importer complies with the requirements Exporters from third countries are not legally required to fulfil the traceability requirement EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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Traceability – Exporters

Requests from EU business operators to their trading partners are part of the food business’s contractual arrangements and not of requirements established by the EU Regulation

EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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TRACEABILITY REQUIREMENTS UNDER EU GENERAL FOOD LAW End of Presentation

EU Commission Delegation Cairo www.eu-delegation.org.eg

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