Food safety

The European Union's food safety policy aims to protect consumers, while guaranteeing the smooth operation of the single market. Dating from 2003, the policy centres on the concept of traceability both of inputs (e.g. animal feed) and of outputs (e.g. primary production, processing, storage, transport and retail sale).

The EU has agreed standards to ensure food hygiene, animal health and welfare, and plant health and to control contamination from external substances, such as pesticides. Rigorous checks are carried out at every stage, and imports (e.g. meat) from outside the EU are required to meet the same standards and go through the same checks as food produced within the EU.

• Food
  • Food – general rules
    • Authorisation, import and manufacture of veterinary medicines
    • Specific rules on organic production, labelling and control
    • Single Market Programme
    • The precautionary principle
    • Methods of sampling and analysis for the control of levels of certain elements in foodstuffs
    • Marketing of vegetable seed
    • Marketing of seeds of agricultural crops
    • ‘Farm to fork’ strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system
    • EU rules on the authorisation, import and production of veterinary medicines
    • Enforcing EU rules for the agri-food chain
    • Combating fraud in the marketing of foods - restoring consumer confidence
  • Food safety bodies
    • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) — ensuring safe food and animal feed in the EU
  • Labelling and nutrition
    • Food labelling legislation
      • Coffee and chicory extracts
      • Specific rules on organic production, labelling and control
      • Traceability of pre-packaged foods
      • Production and labelling of organic products (until 2021)
      • Quick-frozen food
      • Marketing of seeds of agricultural crops
      • Labelling of foodstuffs
      • Genetically modified organisms — traceability and labelling
      • Fruit juices and similar products
      • Fruit jams and sweetened chestnut purée
      • Identification and labelling of beef and veal
      • EU rules for the marketing of fruit plants
      • EU rules on producing and labelling organic products (from 2022)
      • EU labelling rules for honey
      • Ecolabel
    • Food supplements
      • Ensuring safe food supplements in the EU
      • Vitamins and minerals
    • Natural mineral waters
      • EU standards for natural mineral waters
      • Using alumina to remove fluoride from mineral waters
    • Food for specific groups
      • Foods for special medical purposes
      • Specific rules on organic production, labelling and control
      • Infant and follow-on formula — composition and information
      • Foods for specific groups
    • Nutrition and health claims
      • Nutrition and health claims made on foods
  • Food improvement agents
    • Authorisation procedure for additives, enzymes and flavourings
    • Use of enzymes in foods (excluding those in additives)
    • Smoke flavourings — safety assessment
    • Safe food additives
    • Food flavourings
  • New foodstuff types
    • New (novel) foods — rules from 2018
  • Biological safety
    • Antimicrobial resistance
      • A European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance
      • Prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicine
      • Antimicrobial resistance — EU action
    • Food hygiene
      • Hygiene rules for food of animal origin
      • Foods — microbiological criteria
      • Food safety — from farm to fork
    • Food irradiation
      • Foodstuffs treated with ionising radiation
    • Crisis preparedness and management
      • Early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency
      • Food and feed safety — crisis management plan
  • Chemical safety
    • Chemical safety – general rules
      • Fighting water pollution from agricultural nitrates
      • Tackling threats posed by chemicals (Stockholm Convention)
      • Use, storage and trade of mercury
      • Safe food processing: common standards for extraction solvents
      • Safe and effective fertilisers on the EU market (from 2022)
      • Safe and effective fertilisers on the EU market
      • Methods of sampling and analysis for the control of levels of certain elements in foodstuffs
    • Contaminants
      • Contaminants in food: minimising negative impacts
      • Reducing the presence of acrylamide in food
      • Maximum levels of radioactive contamination in foodstuffs
      • Maximum levels for certain contaminants in food
    • Food packaging & containers
      • Active and intelligent materials and articles that come into contact with food
      • Regenerated cellulose film wrappers in contact with food
      • Recycled plastic packaging in contact with food
      • Olive oil analysis
      • Restriction of epoxy derivatives in food contact materials
      • Plastic materials and articles in contact with food
      • Materials and articles in contact with food — good manufacturing practice
      • Import of plastic kitchenware from China
      • Food safety – safe food contact materials
      • Deregulation of pack sizes
      • Ceramic objects in contact with foodstuffs
    • Hormones in meat
      • Bovine somatotrophin — EU rules on marketing and use
      • Prohibition on administering hormones (and other substances) to farm animals
  • Animal feed
    • Food and feed safety — crisis management plan
    • Feed hygiene
      • Ensuring safe animal feed
      • Feed hygiene
    • Feed marketing
      • Marketing of animal feed: EU rules
    • Feed additives
      • Use of additives in feedingstuffs
    • Medicated feed
      • Medicated animal feed — manufacture, marketing and use
      • Residues of veterinary medicinal products in foodstuffs of animal origin
      • Preparation and marketing of medicated feedingstuffs for animals
    • Undesirable substances
      • Ensuring safe animal feed
      • Mycotoxins in cereals
    • Genetically modified feed
      • Genetically modified food & feed
      • Genetically modified organisms — unique identifiers
      • Genetically modified organisms — traceability and labelling
• Animal health
  • Enforcing EU rules for the agri-food chain
  • The EU animal health law
  • Medicated animal feed — manufacture, marketing and use
  • Monitoring of zoonoses and zoonotic agents
  • Information management system for official controls to ensure compliance with agri-food chain rules
  • Animal diseases
    • Other diseases
      • Control of Salmonella and other zoonotic agents
      • Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs)
  • Animal welfare
    • EU strategy for the protection and welfare of animals 2012-15
    • Livestock farming
      • Animal welfare — protection of chickens kept for meat production
      • Specific rules on organic production, labelling and control
      • Protection of pigs
      • Protection of laying hens
      • Protection of farmed animals
      • Protection of calves intended for slaughter
      • European Convention for the protection of animals kept for farming purposes
      • EU-Chile agreement on trade in organic products
    • Animal welfare during transport
      • Animal welfare during transport — rules on staging points
      • EU rules on the protection of animals during transport
    • Slaughter
      • Protection of animals at the time of killing
    • Other animal welfare issues
      • Protection of laboratory animals
      • The role of zoos in the conservation of biodiversity
      • Safer cosmetics for EU citizens
  • Trade and imports
    • Live animals
      • Horses and donkeys intended for competition — rules on trade
      • Zootechnical and genealogical conditions for the breeding, trade in and entry into the EU of certain animals
    • Animal products
      • Animal by-products not intended for human consumption
      • Trade in seal products
      • Health criteria for untreated and heat-treated milk
  • Identification
    • Cattle
      • Identification and labelling of beef and veal
  • Semen, ova and embryos
    • Zootechnical and genealogical conditions for the breeding, trade in and entry into the EU of certain animals
• Plant health
  • Information management system for official controls to ensure compliance with agri-food chain rules
  • Protection against plant pests
  • Plant health and biosecurity
    • Movement of certain plants and plant products through protected zones
  • Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – rules & consumers protection
    • Authorisation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the EU
    • Unauthorised genetically modified rice in rice products from China — emergency measures
    • Regulating GM crops: EU countries’ rights
    • Genetically modified organisms — unique identifiers
    • Genetically modified organisms — traceability and labelling
    • Genetically modified food & feed
    • Exports of genetically modified organisms to non-EU countries
    • EU country flexibility in genetically modified organism cultivation
    • Contained use of genetically modified microorganisms
  • Pesticides & fertilisers
    • Fighting water pollution from agricultural nitrates
    • Using sewage sludge in farming
    • Supplementary protection certificates for medicines and plant protection products
    • Safe insect repellents, disinfectants and other industrial chemicals (biocides) in the EU
    • Safe and effective fertilisers on the EU market (from 2022)
    • Safe and effective fertilisers on the EU market
    • Pesticide safety on the EU market
    • Pesticide residues in food and animal feed
    • Pesticides in the EU — ensuring their sustainable use
    • Protecting health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants
• Archived summaries
  • Accession of the European Community to the Codex Alimentarius Commission
  • Action plan on animal welfare 2006-2010
  • Animal by-products not intended for human consumption
  • Animal nutrition: specifications on certain proteins
  • Animal products for human consumption: animal health rules
  • Aquaculture animals and products – health rules
  • Arrangements for agricultural imports following Chernobyl
  • Arrangements for exporting foodstuffs and feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident
  • Assistance and cooperation with scientific examination
  • Ban on trade in cat and dog fur
  • Avian influenza
  • Bird imports
  • Biocides (until 1 September 2013)
  • Bluetongue
  • BSE: state of play in March 2003
  • Checks on the imports of live animals
  • Combating hunger: strategy for food security
  • Community strategy against antimicrobial resistance
  • Community strategy concerning mercury
  • Community strategy for dioxins, furans and PCBs
  • Conditions for imports of equine animals for slaughter
  • Control measures: fish diseases
  • Cosmetic products (until 2013)
  • Dietary foods for special medical purposes
  • Ensuring proper checks on food and animal feed
  • EU spending on information about food and animal feed
  • EU veterinary certification requirements for poultry and poultry products from non-EU countries, territories or zones
  • European Convention on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter
  • European Union Animal Health Strategy (2007-2013)
  • Geographical Indications and Designations of Origin
  • Horses (semen, ova & embryos) – trade within the EU
  • Green Paper on agricultural product quality
  • Executive Agency for Health and Consumers
  • Export and storage of mercury
  • Food products of animal origin – official controls
  • Identification and registration of pigs
  • Identification and registration of sheep and goats
  • Improving communication on agricultural product quality
  • Importing conditions and quarantine requirements for birds
  • Imports and transit of certain ungulate animals
  • Imports of products
  • Fighting foot-and-mouth disease
  • Health requirements for the import and trade of animals in the EU
  • Health rules for movement and trade of horses
  • Notification of animal diseases
  • Monitoring substances having a hormonal action and other substances in animals and animal products
  • Mutual assistance between national administrations
  • Marketing of pure-bred animals
  • Materials and articles containing vinyl chloride monomer
  • Maximum level of radioactive contamination in foodstuffs
  • Measures against African horse sickness
  • Measures for controlling classical swine fever
  • New (novel) foods and food ingredients
  • Intra-Community trade in bovine pure-bred breeding animals
  • Intra-Community trade in breeding pigs
  • Intra-Community trade in pure-bred breeding sheep and goats
  • Intra-EU trade in and imports of bovine embryos
  • Intra-EU trade in and imports of bovine semen
  • Non-commercial movements of pet animals
  • Non-commercial movements of pet animals
  • Intra-EU trade in ovine and caprine animals
  • Intra-EU trade in poultry and hatching eggs
  • Intra-EU trade in bovine animals and swine
  • Plan for food/feed crisis management
  • Plant protection products prohibited (until June 2011)
  • Protection against organisms harmful to plants
  • Preventing and controlling African swine fever
  • Preventing the spread of animal diseases such as swine vesicular disease
  • Release of N-nitrosamines from rubber teats
  • Production and marketing of eggs and chicks
  • Products of animal origin — protecting human and animal health
  • Pig semen: intra-EU trade and imports
  • Placing on the market of aquaculture animals and products
  • Safe imports of milk and dairy products
  • Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health
  • Veterinary and zootechnical checks of animals and products in trade within the EU
  • Testing migration of plastic materials in contact with foodstuffs
  • The placing of plant protection products on the market (until June 2011)
  • Towards a thematic strategy on the sustainable use of pesticides
  • TRACES system
  • Trade in animal products between EU countries — veterinary checks
  • Traditional specialities guaranteed
  • Training of food safety control authorities
  • SHIFT system
  • The fight against Newcastle disease
  • Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products
  • Sustainable Consumption, Production and Industry Action Plan
  • Veterinary and phytosanitary inspections