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In recent years different food crises have forced legislators to progressively
change the organisation of consumer protection. The spirit of European
regulations is essentially based on and organised around Regulation 178/2002.
Thus, communication between the different actors has become an obligation.
Following scientific assessment, authorities and/or professionals may
decide whether to launch a health alert or not.
Before specifying health alert management, it is important to understand
the context in which these alerts arise. We will examine the responsibility
of the different actors in matters of food safety, the organisation of
consumer protection, the importance of traceability, and the notification
of alerts. We will also review alert management within your enterprise
and each actor's obligations.
It is important to note that these alerts may come from your suppliers,
from your own company, or from public authorities.
The terms withdrawal or recall are often used, and they have different
meanings.
Withdrawal means taking a food or specified batch(es) of a food off the
market at any stage of marketing. Withdrawal management is carried out
solely by professionals.
Recall means taking of a food or specified batch(es) of a food off the
market and recalling it from consumers or instructing them not to use
it. Recall management is carried out by the professional who released
a product to consumers and other interested parties. Home delivered meals
would fall into the category of a recall.
Responsibilities
These responsibilities are described in Article 17 of Regulation 178/2002:
1. Food and feed business operators at all stages of production, processing
and distribution within the businesses under their control shall ensure
that foods or feeds satisfy the requirements of food law which are relevant
to their activities and shall verify that such requirements are met.
2. Member States shall enforce food law, and monitor and verify that the
relevant requirements of food law are fulfilled by food and feed business
operators at all stages of production, processing and distribution.
For that purpose, they shall maintain a system of official controls and
other activities as appropriate to the circumstances, including public
communication on food and feed safety and risk, food and feed safety surveillance
and other monitoring activities covering all stages of production, processing
and distribution.
Professionals' Responsibility
Thus professionals have the responsibility and the obligation to put only
safe food on the market. This results in an obligation of precaution regarding
established or suspected risks. This is covered by the principles of precaution
and prevention. In Article 19, it is indicated that when a professional
"considers" or has "reasons to think" that a food
item that he/she produced and/or placed on the market could be harmful
to human health he/she must inform authorities and his/her customers.
This is the principle of food safety.
As for the elements that make him or her consider or have reasons to think,
the text indicates that "a food business operator is best placed
to devise a safe system for supplying food and ensuring that the food
it supplies is safe. Thus, it should have primary legal responsibility
for ensuring food safety." In reading this passage we notice that
you should develop this safe system of management and assessment of food
safety such as HACCP.
Monitoring of the mastery of critical points allows you to detect a possible
loss of mastery and to evaluate whether your product will be potentially
dangerous or not. Thus, before serving your guests, you will be able to
launch an internal withdrawal within your kitchen or your satellite kitchens.
For home delivery it would mean a recall, as already stated in the definitions
of these terms.
Thus, the professional should be able to guarantee perfect food safety,
and when there is the slightest doubt, he should warn his suppliers, customers,
as well as public authorities.
The Organisation of Monitoring and Control Services
Controls are now carried out all during the life of a product: manufacturing,
transportation, storage, and distribution. During these controls, official
services verify the composition of products, their microbiological characteristics,
as well as their preservation conditions.
However, we must stress one point: surveillance is above all carried out
by the professional through the setting up of a HACCP system. Authorities
only intervene to verify correct management of food safety mastery. Thus,
both professionals and authorities may launch health alerts.
Monitoring by the State is carried out by three bodies that insure the
totality of risk management and controls:
- The Direction Générale de l'Alimentation (DGAL), insures
the control of health quality for all of the food chain concerning products
of animal origin and primary processing for products of plant origin.
- The Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation
et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF), monitors the food chain
for plant products (other than those in the first stage of processing)
and mainly carries out controls at the distribution or consumption site.
It pays special attention to the aspects related to the fidelity of transactions
and consumer protection.
- The Direction Générale de la Santé (DGS), deals
with problems related to water quality.
Consequences for Professionals
Regulations forbid the placing on the market of potentially dangerous
products, and if a stakeholder doesn't follow through with his obligations,
it is the company that employs him or that he manages that is legally
responsible. Thus, the manager of a company is legally responsible for
product quality.
Article 19 §3 also states: "A food business operator shall immediately
inform the competent authorities if it considers or has reason to believe
that a food which it has placed on the market may be injurious to human
health. Operators shall inform the competent authorities of the action
taken to prevent risks to the final consumer and shall not prevent or
discourage any person from co-operating, in accordance with national law
and legal practice, with the competent authorities, where this may prevent,
reduce or eliminate a risk arising from a food."
For the professional, this article is the legal basis for the launching
of a health alert.
Roles
To insure true consumer protection, it is important that authorities,
suppliers, and customers be rapidly and efficiently informed. The co-ordination
between the different actors must be efficient, and above all the means
put into action must be proportional to the importance of the established
or suspected danger or risk.
This idea of proportionality is necessary in order for our protection
system to be accepted by the different food chain operators and by consumers.
Your Obligations
Traceability
If we are to trace a product easily during a crisis, it obviously must
be perfectly identified (manufacturer, contents, batch, use-by date or
best-before date…) and we also must be able to locate it. Therefore
we must know where it comes from, what modifications and mixing it has
gone through within the company, and finally, who was the following link
in the food chain.
All operators must supply authorities with any information they may have
that could be of use in crisis management or to insure the obligation
of loyalty and transparency regarding the consumer.
The global traceability of a food item is segmented, from primary production
to final distribution. For each company, traceability is limited upstream
by its own suppliers, and downstream by its own professional customers.
For the final consumer, it is important to know the day of delivery of
the batches, it is a follow-up obligation for products. Thus, only competent
authorities have a global view of traceability results, from the production
site to the table.
Communication
If we want consumers to be protected, information must be able to circulate
freely in order to "block" products either within the professional
circuit if it is a withdrawal, or at the level of the consumer if it is
a recall.
For communication to be perfectly effective among enterprises and public
authorities, it must not be hindered. Regulations state the obligation
to neither hinder nor impede co-operation among competent authorities
in the case of the suspicion of a risk or non-compliance, and to efficiently
and precisely inform consumers in the case of a recall from the market
for a product that is non-compliant with safety regulations (articles
19 §1 and 20 §1 of Regulation 178/2002).
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