ABSTRACT
According to Regulation (EC) 178/2002, food and feed safety should be based on risk, a function of the probability and the severity of adverse health effects, and risk analysis that consists of (i) risk assessment by scientists; (ii) risk management by managers to prevent or minimize the risk; and (iii) risk communication to food consumers, a duty of both risk managers and assessors. Risk evaluation and management should be based on proportionality, non-discrimination and coherence, re-examination, transparency and precaution. Food shall not be placed on the market if it is injurious to health or unfit for human consumption, and feed shall be deemed to be unsafe if it may have an adverse effect on humans or animals. In addition to specific guidance on how to assess unsafe foods and feeds, this chapter also identifies several important responsibilities of food business operators (from farm to fork) for risk prevention and minimization as well as ensuring the implementation of the “traceability approach” in the food/feed chain. Specific powers are attributed to the European Commission to act under emergency conditions in case measures by the Member States are inadequate to control risks. The last part of this chapter deals with the TRACES system, the Commission’s multilingual online management tool and the fitness check of the General Food Law, completed in 2018.
