1. Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment
Euromodule
Food Safety and Risk Assessment
Arja Siebenga, Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen
Version 1, oktober 2004
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

2. Contents Unit 4 Introduction The Food Supply Chain and Traceability
Legislation and Food Safety Agencies
Codex Alimentarius
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) agreement
EU Food Safety Legislation
International quality systems
Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
ISO 9000 (at this moment ISO 9001:2000)
EUREP-GAP
British Retail Consortium (BRC)
Safe Quality Food
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

3. Introduction
There is concern on Food Safety Hazards among consumers and also among producers (see Unit 1)
Caused by:
Food Poisoning incidents and subsequent Recall actions
Food comes from all over the world and so the production is an uncertain factor
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

4. Introduction
Consumers and Producers want safe and high quality food in the supermarkets, shops and marketplaces
Consumers and Producers want:
Legislation and food safety control
Quality systems
A safe Food Supply Chain
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

5. Precautionary principle
Consumers and Producers want to prevent food hazards and incidents, so Authorities want to take precautionary measures
The European commission took her responsibility and published the White Paper in 2000, after the Green Paper
See:
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

6. White Paper
The European Commission, which wants to assure that the EU has the highest standards on food safety, published the White Paper on Food safety with a proposal for a European Food Authority and Food Safety Legislation
The principles of the White Paper:
To cover the whole of the food chain “farm to table”
To use the precautionary principle where appropriate
To be able to trace products through the whole food chain if necessary
To use scientific advice
To appropriate official controls and rapid action on emergencies
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

7. New EU General Food Law Has regulations for:
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Control Systems and
Transparency and Traceability in food processing chains for eventual problems and subsequent recalls
Quality systems
Is based on worldwide trade and legislation:
Codex alimentarius
Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS) agreement of the World Trade organization (WTO)
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

8. The Food Supply Chain Includes: Primary production (agricultural)
Food processing
Food trade; wholesale and retail
Catering
Consumers; they drive the chain (demand chain)
Bourlakis M.A. eds. (2004), Food Supply Chain Management. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

9. Farmers – Agricultural Producers
The Food Supply Chain
Farmers – Agricultural Producers
Food and drink
manufacturing
Wholesaler
Catering
Retailer
Consumer
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

10. The Food Supply Chain The management environment of the chain:
Quality; the degree of congruence between customers expectations and their realization
Technology; in agricultural production, food manufacturing and distribution
Logistics; a key business process that provides increased customer satisfaction
Information technology; supports the movement of products and product information dissemination in the food chain
Regulation framework; based on (inter)national law
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

11. Traceability
The ability to track and/or trace product flows in a production and distribution chain
It implies that product flows are uniquely identifiable and at critical points in the production and distribution processes, the identity of product flows is logged
This information is systematically collected, processed and stored.
Vernède, R., Verdenius, F. and Broeze, J., (2003) Traceability in Food Processing Chains. KLICT Position Paper, Agrotechnology & Food Innovations, Wageningen.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

12. Traceability
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

13. Traceability
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

14. Traceability
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

15. Traceability
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

16. Traceability Most important points of T&T (art. 18 General Food Law):
From January 1st 2005
Every company in the Food sector
Must be able to perform T&T:
in own warehouse
one participant in the chain before
one participant in the chain after
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

17. Traceability Most important points of T&T (art. 18 General Food Law):
Is for all food related products
Each company is responsable for their choice of batch size
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

18. Legislation and Food Safety Agencies
The Codex Alimentarius, the SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures) agreement and the General Food Law:
Aim
Set up of the legislation / system
Control and sanctions
Administration and organization
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

19. Codex Alimentarius Programme - Aim
The main purposes are:
Protecting Health of the consumers
Ensuring fair trade practices in food trade
Promoting co-ordination of all food standards work from international governmental and non-governmental organizations (harmonization).
ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/standard/en/CXP_001e.pdf (the Codex document)
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

20. Codex Alimentarius Programme Set up of the system
The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of:
Food standards
Codes of practice
Other recommendations presented in a uniform way
Example: Recommended International Code of Practice;
This code recommends a HACCP-based approach to enhance Food Safety
This is a code for all food processing companies, there also is a codex for a type of product or process
(a list of all existing codex)
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

21. Codex Alimentarius Programme Set up of the system
There are also guidelines in the Codex for:
Production
Processing
Marketing and
Labelling
Example: for niche products or special foods, there is the Codex for organically produced foods.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

22. Codex Alimentarius Programme Control and Sanctions
There is no organization that controls the Codex; each country in the world has its own responsibility and for each Codex has the choice of:
Full acceptance
Acceptance with minor deviations or
Free distribution
An increasing number of countries are aligning there national food standards with those of the Codex Alimentarius, particularly in the case of additives contaminants and residues.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

23. Codex Alimentarius Programme Organization
The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) was created in 1963 by:
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
World Health Organisation (WHO)
The secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is a senior FAO official who serves as the Chief of the Joint FAO / WHO Food Standards Programmes located within the Food and Nutrition Division at FAO in Rome.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

24. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement: Aim
The basic aim of the SPS agreement is to maintain the sovereign right of any government to provide the level of health protection it deems appropriate, but first of all to ensure that these sovereign rights are not misused for protectionist purposes and do not result in unnecessary barriers to international trade.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

25. SPS Agreement Setup of the system
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement is based on seven principles which the member states of the WTO have to follow:
National sovereignty
Harmonisation
Equivalence
Science-based measures
Regionalisation
Transparency
Dispute resolution.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

26. SPS Agreement Control and sanctions
Only governments can submit trade disputes to the WTO’s disputes settlement
By accepting the WTO agreement, governments have agreed to be bound by the rules in all of the multilateral trade agreements attached to it including the SPS agreement
In case of trade dispute there is the WTO’s dispute settlement procedure and the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

27. SPS Agreement Administration and organisation
The SPS committee is open to all member countries
Look for literature concerning the dispute between European Countries and the United States of America on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s)
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

28. EU Food Safety Legislation Aim
To establish and maintain high level protection of human health, safety and consumer protection
So the General Food Law is the only of the three agreements whose only purpose is the consumer and his health, safety and legal protection
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

29. EU Food Safety Legislation Set up of the legislation
The General Food Law consists of:
Directives; A number of guidelines that can be transformed into national laws, there is some space for adaptation to the specific national situations.
Example: Obligation of the manufacturer to establish a self monitoring system in accordance with the HACCP concept.
And
Regulations; They should be taken over literally by the member states.
Example: Food and food ingredients must be traceable
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

30. EU Food Safety Legislation Control and Sanctions
Control is a responsibility of the local government
The EU can assign a European Inspection Team that examines if a member state acts according to the rules.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

31. EU Food Safety Legislation Administration and organisation
The European Community has several bodies for legislation matters:
European Food Safety Authority; scientific advice
Council of Ministers; decision-making on final legislative matters
European Parliament; legislation and control.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

32. International Quality Systems
The most important quality systems:
Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
ISO 9000 (at this moment ISO 9000:2000)
EUREP-GAP
British Retail Consortium (BRC)
Safe Quality Food.
We will discuss:
Description of the system
Aim
Set up of the system
Control and Sanctions
Advantages and disadvantages.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

33. Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
The HACCP system is the system that is required for any food business or organisation in most countries by legislation.
The joint FAO / WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission recommends the HACCP approach to enhance Food Safety.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

34. Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
The Aim:
“HACCP is a tool to assess hazards and establish control systems that focus on prevention rather then relying mainly on end-product testing on food safety”
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

35. Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Set up of the system:
HACCP is a science based system
With 7 principles, for example “Conduct a hazard analysis”
And 12 guidelines, for example “List all potential hazards associated with each step, conduct a hazard analysis and consider any measures to control identified hazards.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

36. Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Control on HACCP is part of the control of the legislation; in EU that is General Food Law based legislation in each country
Sanctions depend on the different legislations and are enforced in EU by the Food controlling organisation in each country.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

37. Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Advantages
Gives insight in the critical control points of the process
Gives trust for the consumer that products are produced safely and hygienically
Decreases chance on recall
Decreases number of desired audits; saves money
Reduces the costs of food borne illness.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

38. Hazard Analyses Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Disadvantages:
Increased production and supervisory costs
Need to train supervisors managerial and production staff
Attitude / Motivation of all
Reduced Staff time available for other tasks
Costs of implementation
Reduced flexibility in production process and introduction of new products.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

39. ISO 9000 (at this moment ISO 9000:2000)
ISO systems are:
Generic {for all types of organisations producing all kinds of products or services in any sector of activity (profit, non-profit or public)}
Management systems (there is a minimum of operational order so that time, money and other resources are utilised efficiently)
Standards (providing the organization with a model for setting up and operating the management system).
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

40. ISO 9000 (at this moment ISO 9000:2000)
The Aim / result of ISO 9000 is:
“Transparency of the processes so the organization can deliver measurable output.”
The system is frequently revised. The last time was in the year 2000, so we currently use ISO 9000:2000, which was published in 2001
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

41. ISO 9000:2000 The revised system consists of:
ISO 9000 Quality Management System (QMS): Principles and Definitions
ISO 9001 QMS: Requirements
ISO9004 QMS: Guidelines for performance improvement
ISO Guidelines for auditing QMS.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

42. ISO 9000:2000 ISO has no Control itself but:
conformity assessment is a matter for suppliers and their clients in private sector
when ISO standards have been incorporated into public legislation, regulatory bodies execute the assessments
Many testing laboratories and certification bodies offer independent (“third party”) conformity assessment services.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

43. ISO 9000:2000 Sanctions can be used for misleading practices such as:
Misuse of the ISO logo, which is a registered trademark
Giving the false impression, through expression such as “ISO certification”
Giving the false impression that ISO 9000 is a product quality label.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

44. ISO 9000:2000 Basic Advantages: The meeting of regulatory requirements
The meeting of customer needs
The model ISO 9000 makes for a company seeking to formalize their management system of quality assurance.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

45. ISO 9000:2000 Important disadvantages:
ISO 9000 is not a specific food safety system and does not necessarily ensure food safety and does not require an HACCP plan to be completed to meet the standards
The actual change of operations can be very expensive (Designated employees have to be trained and take classes and spend time to train fellow employees)
Companies sometimes feel that the existing set of operational procedures is already working well and so the need to change is not felt.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

46. EUREP-GAP
EUREP stand for Euro-Retailer Produce working group and is a platform in which the major European food retailers are grouped.
The Aim:
“The objective is to raise standards for the production of fresh products such as fruits vegetables and livestock”.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

47. EUREP-GAP
EUREP supports the principles of and encourages the use of HACCP
EUREP-GAP for fruit and vegetables is developed by all kinds of representatives from the fruit and vegetables chain. Growers are obliged to comply with national and international laws.
Growers have to show commitment to:
Food safety
Reduction of environmental damage
Reduction of the use of pesticides
Efficient use of natural resources
Health and safety for employers.
There is a strong focus on traceability.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

48. EUREP-GAP Set up of the system:
EUREP has developed a protocol for Good Agricultural Practice for fresh fruit and vegetables.
EUREP has also developed a protocol “Integrated Farm Assurance” Livestock and Combinable Crops.
This is a guide to standards of EUREP.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

49. EUREP-GAP
The EUREP-GAP approval is received after a verification from a verification body and there must be at least one internal inspection a year.
A significant number of retailers only allow fruit and vegetables with EUREP-GAP certificate.
When less then 95% of the “minor musts" is fulfilled the certificate will be temporarily suspended.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

50. EUREP-GAP Advantages:
Reducing Food Safety Risks in Global Primary Production by means of:
Encouraging the development and adaptation of national and regional farm assurance schemes
Reducing costs of compliance
Increasing the Integrity of farm assurance schemes world wide.
Disadvantages:
Regulations are quite broad and general
It is an industry initiative focused on business-to-business rather than consumer orientated.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

51. British Retail Consortium (BRC)
BRC took the initiative to formulate common standards to inspect suppliers providing retailers with food.
Aim:
With a BRC-certificate producers satisfy all demands that British supermarkets require at once. Because this lowers the cost for customers and producers both with regard to inspection cost this concept is valued broadly.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

52. British Retail consortium (BRC)
Set up of the system:
BRC requires suppliers to have a quality system operational, the application of HACCP, including process, staff and product, and finally environmental demands should be met
It consists of:
- Inspection protocol (used by the organiza- tions controlling the suppliers)
- Elaborated checklist for the suppliers itself.
A supplier can achieve two levels; foundation and a higher level.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

53. British Retail Consortium (BRC)
Control
A couple of accredited organizations are allowed to certify companies.
Sanctions
Shortcomings of the norm can be divided into three categories:
Critical (blockade)
Major (improvement reports)
Minor (recommendations)
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

54. British Retail Consortium (BRC)
Advantages:
In the international context BRC is widely known
Suppliers have less audits
Audits are more standardized
Suppliers can stress their strengths and indicate on which level they are operating
Mainly HACCP based
Disadvantages:
Very extensive checklist (more than 200 control points)
Some items are typically English.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

55. Safe Quality Food (SQF)
SQF is an Australian initiative that focuses on Food safety, product quality and the stimulation of improvement strategies.
Aim:
To raise standards of Food Safety and quality across the food chain
To continuously improve and deliver high standards of customer services
To continue to pursue increased recognition of SQF Management Systems by customers and client in new existing markets
To maintain and protect the high level of integrity of SQF Codes.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

56. Safe Quality System (SQF)
Set up of the system:
SQF 1000 Quality Code: a simple HACCP-based supplier approved system for primary producers
SQF 2000 Quality Code: a user-friendly quality assurance system specifically tailored for food businesses
SQF 3000 Quality Code: a system focused on retailers, especially for biological, chemical and physical contamination.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

57. Safe Quality Food (SQF)
Advantages:
Very complete system, certified companies easily obtain other certificates
Assessed by officially accredited organizations
Broad reputation is an advantage for exporting companies
SQF label can be used as a marketing instrument
Enabling tool for producers, manufactures and distributors to demonstrate “due diligence” and traceability
Proven way for Supply Chain to increase market share
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

58. Safe Quality Food (SQF)
Advantages continued:
Internationally recognized
Management system that allows implementation of operational efficiencies.
Disadvantages:
SQF certification is not automatically a HACCP certification
Not always clear for customers what product quality issues are covered.
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment

59. Quality Systems
Those were the five most used world wide quality systems.
You see how important the issue of safe food and quality of our food is supposed to be!
Unit 4: Food Legislation and Risk Assessment