Food Safety: An Action Plan Follows the Assessment

  The report titled “Food Safety Policy: Assessment and Recommendations,” by Christian Babusiaux and Marion Guillou, was presented on December 8 to the ministers of the Economy, Consumer Affairs, Health, and Agriculture. To implement its recommendations, an interministerial action plan* has just been approved. This plan includes ten new initiatives to be launched, organized around three key areas. 1. Strengthen and structure France’s health monitoring and health surveillance capacity: The actions under this priority aim to improve the effectiveness of health monitoring, enhance the surveillance of food hazards, and address gaps in knowledge and prevention regarding the health status of imported products. 2. Promote an integrated food safety system at the European and national levels: the actions under this pillar aim to foster the development of a cross-sectoral prioritization of food risks at the European level, to share risk analysis at the national level among relevant administrations and agencies, and to continue structuring the French food safety system. 3. Strengthen and optimize collaborative efforts regarding food safety risk management: The actions under this priority aim to continue structuring the French system by clarifying the roles of the various stakeholders, to rebalance the planning and focus of inspections, and to increase transparency and consumer information on risks in order to restore public confidence.   The first four actions will require in-depth analysis, which will be conducted by four working groups over the next three years.

• Identify priority issues that could benefit from a more integrated risk assessment of food risks related to microbiological and chemical contaminants in food of animal and plant origin: In the areas of animal health, plant health, and food, a broader review will be conducted under the Law for the Future of Agriculture, which provides for the definition, by ordinance, of the missions and obligations of oversight stakeholders.
• Based on this cross-cutting risk prioritization, improve the consistency of food safety policy by translating its results into budgetary and organizational plans and by establishing quantitative objectives and relevant indicators.
• Improve regional and departmental governance: a government directive to prefects will set forth the procedures for implementing public food safety policy;
• Establish transparent reporting of the results of establishment inspections, which will require changes to how government agencies operate.

  Six other, more ad hoc actions will be launched, some as early as this year:

• Restore continuity of border inspections;
• incorporate food safety policy objectives into the mission statements of the various stakeholders in the system;
• Optimize protocols for data exchange and sharing among the directorates-general;
• make the aggregated publication of annual reports on inspection results standard practice;
• make the health section of the Food Observatory a permanent feature;
• urge the European Union to improve its risk analysis of health risks associated with imports.

A committee will be tasked with overseeing the implementation of this plan. * Action Plan of the Ministries Responsible for Food Safety Policy: HERE