Training on veterinary and food safety checks at border inspection posts (BIP) ends for 2010 within Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) with a workshop in Southampton on 21-24 September. This event specifically concerns controls at seaport BIPs and aims to spread good practices so as to ensure a consistently high standard of implementation across the EU.

Around 40 people are to attend, mainly official staff involved in border checks in EU Member States, candidate and European Economic Area countries. By the end of the programme, which has run during 2009 and 2010, approximately 280 participants will have received direct training on the subject over the two years.

The training has a strong practical element and a large part consists of exercises carried out in the BIP. The activity looks at various aspects of import and transit controls on live animals and a wide range of products intended for human consumption or other purposes. Subjects to be covered include transhipments and rejected consignments, documentary checks, fraud, composite products, animal by-products and sampling.

In all, seven workshops have been held within the 2009-10 BIPs programme. Five of these have been on checks in seaport BIPs, all of which have taken place in Southampton. The other two have focused on road and rail BIPs and were held in Poland, with theoretical elements provided at Zaborek and participants visiting the road and rail BIPs at Terespol and Kukuryki.

Training on border controls has been an integral part of BTSF since the outset and, in light of their importance to animal and public health security in the single market, it is to continue in the coming years. A total of nine three-day sessions are planned for 2011-12, with four focusing on veterinary and food safety checks at seaport BIPs, three on airport BIPs and two on road and rail BIPs.

Somewhere in the region of 360 people will benefit directly from the training which will provide access to border posts handling a high quantity of imported goods and regular consignments from third countries. The BIPs used will also have extensive operating experience and top quality control systems.