ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) monitoring programs consist of official controls that enforce the compliance of diverse aspects of the regulations in place. This chapter aims to clarify what an official control consists of, who plans them, what characteristics they have, who carries them out, what is the data collected used for, and other information. The previous Regulation No. 882/2004 is a general food law. For the specific field of food and feed of plant and animal origin, Regulation (EC) No. 396/20052 was adopted. It is important to protect plants and plant products against harmful organisms in order to prevent a reduction in yield or damage to them and to ensure both the quality of the products harvested and high agricultural productivity. The European Commission prepares the EU-coordinated multiannual control program, as it is stated in Regulation 396/2005, identifies specific samples to be included and takes into account problems that have been identified regarding compliance with maximum residue levels (MRLs).
