EU Commission Establishes Crisis Management Plan for Food Safety

The Commission of the European Union (EU) has taken action to establish a general plan for the EU’s response and management of crises related to unsafe food and feed products.

Published in late February in the Official Journal of the European Union, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/300 provides a comprehensive overview of the actions necessary to facilitate coordination of the Commission, EU Member States and Union agencies in the event of a food safety crisis, and also sets out practical procedures in preparing for and managing food safety incidents. Specifically, the Implementing Decision addresses:

• The structures and procedures required for response preparedness (Chapter II)
• The coordination of response efforts at the Union level (Chapter III)
• The steps necessary to establish a crisis unit (Chapter IV)
• Primary and supplementary procedures for incident management (Chapter V)
• Communications issue (Chapter VI)

Under the terms of the Implementing Decision, the Commission will draw up a 5-year plan that conforms with the specific provisions of the general plan, and will update that plan every 5 years thereafter. 

The text of the Commission’s Implementing Decision on food safety crisis management as published in the Official Journal is available here.