Content : Food
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EU policy in the area of food and health falls under the responsibility of the Commission’s Directorate General for health and consumer protection (DG SANCO).
As far as EU food law is concerned, there are three main areas of concern to restaurants and other catering establishments:
Traceability
Regulation 178/2002 lays down the general principles of food law, which aim to ensure food safety throughout the chain of production and distribution to actual consumption at the dinner table – from “farm to fork”. Under the traceability requirement, food service operations, including restaurants, have to maintain records of their purchases of food substances, which shall be made available to the authorities on request.
The same Regulation also set up the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health. Consisting of Member State and Commission experts, this committee is charged with adopting detailed rules for the implementation of EU food law.
Hygiene
Regulation 852/2004 on food hygiene, which came into force on 1 January 2006, requires that all food business operations, including restaurants, comply with very detailed hygiene rules as regards, among other issues, layout, design and size of premises, storage and disposal of waste, personal hygiene, etc. Specific hygiene requirements are also to be adopted in relation to compliance with microbiological criteria for foodstuffs, compliance with temperature requirements, maintenance of the cold chain, etc. Furthermore, food business operators have to put in place procedures based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points).
Labeling
Food labeling is an area which, as yet, does not directly concern restaurants. There are a number of Directives which require that foodstuff delivered to end-consumers is appropriately labeled if it contains specific ingredients, including allergens, nutrients, and GMOs. The origin of beef also has to be indicated. However, the labeling rules do not apply to restaurants as they do not “deliver foodstuff as such”, but serve cooked meals.
A word of precaution is nonetheless justified. The fact that the EU does not require restaurants to engage in food labeling does not mean that national law cannot impose such requirements (this is indeed the case in some Member States). It does not rule out the possibility of a change of EU law in the future either.