BfR publishes the 5th edition of EU Food Safety Almanac
On 11th August 2021, BfR (Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung - German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) has published the 5th edition of the EU Food Safety Almanac.
The EU Food Safety Almanac serves as a reference work providing an overview of the current legal frameworks that exist with regard to food and feed safety including packaging. It is an example of the constructive cooperation practiced between all bodies involved in food safety in Europe. EFSA as well as its Focal Point network from all 27 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway, as well as observers from Switzerland and EU candidate countries have contributed to this almanac and published by the BfR. Overall, 37 country profiles are presented in this 5th edition.
At European level, risk assessment and risk communication are tasks assigned to EFSA, while risk management remains with the European Commission and the Council of the European Union.
In the various European states, the task allocation of risk assessment, risk management and risk communication has different legal structures.
Some countries, including Germany, prefer to distribute the responsibility for risk assessment and risk management between different institutions. Other countries unite these tasks in a single institution.
The relevant government institutions along with their tasks and legal foundations in relation to food and feed safety can be found in each country profile. The profiles also state whether (and to what extent) the respective country publishes its risk assessments.
The distribution of responsibility between the national, regional and local levels within a given country also has an impact on efficient food safety regulation. Some countries tend to have their risk assessments conducted by external experts (commissions), whereas in other countries, the institutions largely carry out risk assessments by themselves.