Better Training for Safer Food is a Commission training initiative covering food and feed law, animal health and welfare and plant health rules. It trains Member State and candidate country national authority staff involved in official controls in these areas.

This aims to keep participants up-to-date with EU law in these areas and should help to ensure more harmonised and efficient controls. Efficient controls are an essential factor in maintaining high levels of consumer protection, animal health and plant health. Harmonisation of controls should help to create a level playing field for food businesses.

Training is also organised specifically for third, particularly developing country participants so as to familiarise them with EU requirements. This should help to ease access to the EU market for products from developing countries.

	Recent News
	Commission marks 5th anniversary of Better Training for Safer Food 'Better Training for Safer Food' celebrates its 5th anniversary in 2011. A press event will mark the occasion in Malta on 18 Nov. with Commissioner Dalli linked to a workshop for Mediterranean countries on EU standards for plant health controls. Mr Dalli will address participants and visit a palm tree plantation. Commission adopts Staff Working Document on Better Training for Safer Food programme The European Commission has recently adopted a Staff Working Document on the Better Training for Safer Food programme (BTSF). The Document sets out the principal challenges which BTSF is currently facing and identifies a series of possible actions to overcome them. It sets targets for the short-medium term (up to and including 2013) and long term (from 2014). The overall aim is to increase the size, quality, impact and productivity of BTSF while generating economies of scale.