Audits PDO/PGI/TSG Examples of Good Practices Johannes Kern DG SANTE/FVO Unit F4.3
Overview (17) DG SANTE/FVO (5) Background Audits PDO/PGI/TSG (4) Lessons Learned and Good Practices (5) 2
DG Sante Food and Veterinary Office Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath 170 Staff 250 Audits Per Year 3
FVO What do we do? Verify compliance with EU legislation Food safety, food quality (for example PDO/PGI), animal health, animal welfare, plant health, medical devices, active pharmaceutical ingredients In Member States, Candidate Countries and Third Countries exporting to EU 4
FVO Reporting Procedure Draft reports sent to CAs for comments Final reports to Commission Services, European Parliament/Council, stakeholders In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and FVO standard operating procedures Reports are published on the FVO website, at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/fvo/index_en.htm 5
FVO Reporting Procedure An overview report is planned to be published end of this year Feedback on observations regarding legislation to regulators Presentations at the related Standing Committee 6
Images www.istockphoto.com 7
Background PDO/PGI/TSG 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between the Directorates General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) 8
Audits PDO/PGI/TSG 2011 Hungary (Pilot November) 2012 United Kingdom; Belgium 2013 Czech Republic; Austria; Slovakia 2014 Italy; Slovenia; Netherlands 2015 Finland; France; Spain 2016 Bulgaria; Portugal; Greece (provisional) 9
Objectives and Scope of Audits Objectives: evaluation of the official control systems for the implementation of EU legislation concerning PDOs, PGIs and TSGs for agricultural products and foodstuffs and traceability and labelling Scope: review the organisation and performance of Competent Authorities (CAs) for PDO, PGI, and TSG, and official controls system in place covering production, distribution and placing on the market of these products 10
Key Points Cooperation and participation of DG AGRI Presence of a National Expert from an EU Member State Food quality not food safety Specific products selected to assess system 11
Lessons Learned (8 MSs) Impact of GI registration varies Large players and very small players Many seasonal products Many registered products not produced Many products are not for export Market controls undertaken regularly (- 1 MS) 12
Lessons Learned (8MSs) Six CAs delegated official controls to Control Bodies (CBs) one MS, CBs involved not accredited other MSs, CBs accredited, in many cases accreditation documents lacked specific details on the individual products or did not specify the term PDO/PGI/TSG half the MSs using CBs, requirement that the delegating CA supervise the CBs not implemented one MS, no CA designated for official controls at farm level, even when part of the Product Specification 13
Examples of Good Practices Italy, planned development of a database with all official control data, risk criteria and own controls to calculate the risk and control frequency with greater accuracy Austria, one example, a marketing company had prepared labels to ensure that product that was subdivided at retail level did not lose its PDO/PGI/TSG identity 14
Examples of Good Practices Czech Republic, market inspectors laptops, to access the DOOR database to check labelling and registered names Certain MSs, for ex. Italy and Slovenia, Producer Groups have significant role in market controls of PDO/PGI/TSG Italy and Slovenia, requirement for producers to inform CA of the quantities of the PDO/PGI/TSG produced annual 15
Conclusion Overall official controls in conjunction with the control activities of the Producer Groups give a satisfactory level of assurance thereby ensuring the integrity of PDO/PGI/TSG registrations 16
Thank you for your attention 17