How do the audits carried out from Grange ensure food safety and quality in Europe?

Carrying out audits and analysis to check food safety systems in Member States and in third countries accounts for a large part of our work in the Directorate. However, that’s not all we do by any means. We also carry out public health controls, including checks on the safety of medical devices and pharmaceuticals used by EU citizens, as well as joint visits with ECDC on antimicrobial resistance. My team also manages the Better Training for Safer Food initiative and is responsible for the care and management of the Grange site (which accommodates colleagues from DG DGT and DG DIGIT in addition to DG SANTE).

When it comes to our audits, we evaluate the performance of the food safety authorities. This involves desk-based checks on how they organise their national controls and verify their effectiveness. It also involves, in most cases, some on-the-spot checks to see how they implement these controls in food production establishments. Where we find shortcomings, we report them – our reports are publicly available on the European Commission website – and make relevant recommendations to the competent authorities.

We follow up our audit recommendations by systematically checking that the authorities take the necessary corrective and preventive action. I’m glad to say that, in most cases, they do. However, where problems persist, DG SANTE initiates enforcement measures. In the case of Member States, this can lead to infringement measures. In the case of third countries, DG SANTE can suspend exports of their products to the EU.

Our overview reports pull together the findings from several audits to provide general conclusions on how specific EU rules are being implemented. These reports provide valuable feedback to policy makers and help to shape future EU food safety standards.

In these various ways, our audits contribute to ensuring food safety for European citizens, and a level playing field for European businesses.

How does your Directorate collaborate with Member States and third countries to carry out these audits?

The goal of our audit work is to continuously improve the quality of the health and food systems in Member States and in third countries supplying the EU. This is an ongoing process that means working with Member State and third country authorities at many levels.

As I mentioned before, we manage the Better Training for Safer Food initiative, which provides in-person and online training courses for professionals in the Member States and third countries to learn more about specific areas of food safety, plant/animal/One Health issues. This is an important tool to raise awareness of EU food safety standards. Over the last three years, we delivered almost 600 training workshops for more than 17,000 participants. In addition, approximately 9,000 professionals completed on-line training with the BTSF Academy.

For the Member States, we also organise regular network meetings for the officials responsible for national control plans and auditing systems. These provide a forum to share best practices and harmonise how EU rules are applied across the EU.

In addition, we regularly review how third countries and Member States ensure the safety of food imported by the EU. This includes checking their plans for monitoring food and feed for the presence of residues and contaminants; the listing and control of third country export establishments; the approval of facilities at border control points in Member States.

By identifying problems early and helping national authorities to solve them, the Directorate makes an important contribution to sustaining the EU’s reputation for high food safety and high health standards.

Did any particular audits undertaken in recent years lead to substantial improvements for EU consumers?

 Every audit conducted plays a crucial role in enhancing consumer protection. 

The team has the formidable challenge of covering a vast array of subjects and virtually every nation across the globe, so we must operate with strategic prioritisation. 

This ensures that our resources are directed towards areas where they can have the most significant and meaningful impact. Consequently, while it may be difficult to single out individual audits as being pivotal, the collective efforts of our auditing activities contribute to ongoing advancements that safeguard and benefit EU consumers as a whole.

One-Health is a key priority of the Commission. How does your work fit into this priority?

I should start, perhaps, by outlining what we mean by One Health. The One Health High Level Expert Panel defines it as an integrated, unifying approach that aims to balance and optimise the health of people, animals, and ecosystems in sustainable ways. It recognises that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent. In today’s interconnected world this approach is essential to prevent, prepare for and respond to global threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The work of DG SANTE Directorate F 'Health and food audits and analysis’ has covered these areas since it was set up over 20 years ago. A key aim of food safety regulation is to break the cycle of foodborne transmission of disease agents and contaminants from animals and plants to humans. In addition to ensuring the hygienic production of food, this involves measures to prevent diseases such as salmonellosis, brucellosis and tuberculosis in livestock. It also means controlling the use of veterinary medicinal products in livestock and reducing our dependence on chemical pesticides in farming. These are topics that we have regularly audited over decades.

In the past few years, we have broadened our approach to One Health controls and assessments, by looking at how national public health and veterinary control systems work together. The main work so far has been with ECDC, looking into antimicrobial resistance. Coordinated action by vets and health workers is essential to ensure that vital antibiotics are available for vulnerable patients, and we are helping countries to understand the strengths and weaknesses in their systems. However, we are also working with veterinary and health authorities in Member States to understand how they can work together to prevent the transmission of pandemic agents (such as SARS-CoV-2 and highly pathogenic avian influenza). The findings from our initial fact-finding studies in this area are proving to be very useful.

I have no doubt that One Health will account for a growing proportion of our work in coming years as it is an area where we can provide unique insights that will be extremely useful for policy makers.