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One of the missions of the European Commission is to verify that the standards set out in European Union (EU) legislation on food and feed safety, food quality, animal health and welfare, plant health, EU quality standards and certain areas of human health, are correctly implemented in Member States and in third countries, for their exports to the EU.
To achieve this mission, the European Commissions has established its Health and Food Audits and Analysis Programme for 2022. It plans to conduct 281 controls in total, which include 172 audits and similar controls, as well as 109 analyses of EU Member State and third country control systems.
In addition, Commission experts will perform other demand-driven controls such as the analyses of border control posts, joint assessments on medical devices, fact-finding missions to testing facilities and controls on third country listings for exports to the EU.
All controls help give consumers the confidence that their interests are protected.
The selection of these controls results from a careful prioritisation process, based on legal obligations for Commission controls, risks posed in the sectors concerned and the Commission’s political priorities, and in particular the Farm to Fork Strategy.
The outcome of the audits and similar controls is made available to the public on the website of the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/food/horizontal-topics/official-controls-and-enforcement/health-and-food-audits-and-analysis_en).
The work programme also presents other activities planned for 2022. These include, for example, the development of the policy on the sustainable use of pesticides, contributing to the reduction in use and risk of chemical pesticides in line with the Green Deal and the objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy, the management of two networks of Member State authorities on their multi-annual national control plans and national audit systems, and the management of the Better Training for Safer Food programme.
