At the end of December last year, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety published the document that sets out its work programme for health and food audits and analysis for 2023.
This Directorate implements the Commission’s policies on food safety and public health and devotes most of its resources to controls. It monitors the implementation and enforcement of European Union (EU) legislation in the domains of a. food (areas of food and feed safety, animal health, animal welfare, plant health and EU quality standards) and b. health in particular certain areas of human health.
The updated work programme presents the priorities for controls in 2021-2025 and the detailed activities planned for 2023.
In 2023, the Directorate intends to perform 288 planned controls complemented by “on demand” controls. In 2023, controls will continue on most priorities addressed in previous years: i. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR); ii. Animal welfare and iii. Feed safety. The Directorate will assist Member States in further developing and implementing their national strategies and policies against antimicrobial resistance based on a One Health perspective.
The Directorate will continue working on the other non-control activities. It will facilitate the development of recommendations addressed to EU Member States, development of policy on the sustainable use of pesticides, networking activities with Member States, the management of the Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) programme and the input into the review or development of legislation in different areas or sectors, based on the outcome of its controls.
The BEATLES project will follow up on the conclusions of the analyses carried out, as well as the recommendations of this Directorate.
This will contribute to the project’s objectives related to identifying individual, systemic and policy lock-ins and levers that influence entire food systems behavioural change and to develop transformation pathways of change to accelerate the transition to climate-smart agriculture fully aligned with EU ambitions.
Author: Blanca Casares (AEIDL)
