Künast: Milestone for more food safety

Law on the reorganization of food and feed law presented

Federal Consumer Minister Renate Künast described the draft law passed by the Federal Cabinet on May 19, 2004 to reorganize food and animal feed legislation as a "milestone on the way to greater food safety". So far, 11 laws have been combined into a single law regulating food and feed law. This will bring about a paradigm shift in food policy. Because for the first time, animal feed would be understood as the first link in the food production chain and consistently included in it. Therefore, in the future, the safety of food and animal feed will be regulated in a law with uniform standards. "Food safety is indivisible. Safety from the field and stable to the consumer's plate - the draft law is based on this comprehensive understanding of food safety," says Künast.

The federal government has drawn a clear conclusion from the food scandals of the past few years: "Precautionary consumer protection has become a very important part of state action. And for us it has priority over short-term economic interests," said the minister. That is why preventive consumer health protection is laid down as a key objective of the law.

The consolidation of all food and feed regulations in a uniform law makes consumer information easier and creates more transparency for all market participants, said Künast. The law should also serve to extend the protection against fraud that already applies in food and feed law to consumer goods. The draft law provides for a corresponding authorization. He also makes a very concrete contribution to simplifying the law and reducing bureaucracy. With this law, ten individual laws would be repealed, including historical legacies, such as the lead-zinc law of 1887 or the phosphorus incendiary law of 1903.

Read the draft of the new [LFGBs] as a PDF file.

Source: Berlin [bmvel]