September 2007 update on food hygiene legislation

Thursday 20 September 2007

Report on a Council Working Party on 13 September 2007 – Proposal to amend Article 5 of Regulation 852/2004

This update reports on the meeting to discuss a compromise text produced by the Portuguese Presidency regarding the proposal, issued by the Commission in March 2007, to exempt certain food businesses from the requirement in Article 5 of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 to operate HACCP-based food safety procedures.

At the meeting, no Member State was able to accept the compromise as drafted.

As a result of the first round of discussion, the Presidency then tabled a further compromise. The main change from its previous text was deletion of the examples of low risk food businesses. All Member States reserved their positions on the new text, which was not discussed in any detail. The Presidency asked for written comments by 20 September.

A more detailed report of the meeting, along with copies of the compromise texts can be found at the link below.