Foodstuffs and products of animal origin

The European Parliament rejected by 286 votes to 368, with 13 abstentions, the motion for a resolution on the draft Commission regulation amending Annexes to Regulations (EC) No 853/2004, (EC) No 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 2074/2005.

The resolution, tabled on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, recommended the Parliament to oppose the adoption of the draft Commission regulation on the basis that the proposed regulation is not compatible with the aim and content of the basic act.

Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 lays down the general principles for official controls for example on hygiene, animal by-products and animal welfare, and clarifies that the official veterinarian is responsible for judging whether meat is fit or unfit for human consumption and for applying the health mark.

The Commission draft amending regulation proposes:

• only to allow incision and palpation procedures if the ‘epidemiological or other data from the holding of provenance of the animals, the food chain information or the findings of ante-mortem inspection and/or post-mortem visual detection of relevant abnormalities indicate possible risks to public health, animal health or animal welfare’;
• to instruct the competent authorities to verify the correct implementation by food business operators of the process hygiene criterion for Salmonella on pig carcasses.

The committee considered that the proposed amendments to Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 might lead to a situation where:

• potential dangers to human health could remain undetected and meat unfit for human consumption could enter the food chain;
• abnormalities, such as abscesses or tumours, might not be detected, and even if such abnormalities did not pose food safety risks they might deceive consumer expectations regarding food quality;
• breaches of animal welfare rules might remain undetected if organs are not examined properly;
• the detection probability of epizootics could decrease.

The committee stated that measures proposed in the draft Commission regulation should in the first place be considered in the context of the above-mentioned Commission proposal on official controls of 6 May 2013 before any specific measures on reducing control tasks of official veterinarians are taken.