Streamlined legislation will help improve consumer confidence

The European Parliament has today approved new regulations on the official controls of food and feed law. The aim of the new regulation is to ensure the uniform application of the agri-food chain rules across the EU by harmonising current legislation and bringing all controls under one source. The changes are in part a response to the horse meat scandal and the Greens/EFA group was instrumental in securing a whistleblowers clause which could help bring any future wrongdoing into the open.

Commenting after the vote, Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur Bart Staes said:

“By bringing a number of food controls together under one regulation, we will make it easier for national food authorities to do their jobs. The Greens/EFA group was behind several of the positive provisions on clear rules on transparency and independence of controls. Following troubling issues such as the horse meat scandal, ensuring that whistleblowers are respected is important if we want to make sure that any future breaches of rules are quickly brought into the open.

“We are pleased that organic food and seeds have been largely kept separate from the new controls regulation. These are already adequately covered by their own legislation. Now it's up to the member states to ensure that their respective competent authorities are appropriately equipped and that controls in the food chain are properly enforced."