Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2011:639
Date: 2011-10-06
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Subject matter: Approximation of laws;Public health
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment Protection of public health – Food hygiene – Obligations of food business operators – General hygiene provisions applicable to all operators (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 852/2004, Arts 4(2), 5 and Annex II, Chapter IX, paragraph 3) Paragraph 3 of Chapter IX of Annex II to Regulation No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs must be interpreted as meaning that, with regard to containers used for self-service retail of bread and bakery products, the fact that a potential purchaser could conceivably have touched the foodstuffs offered for sale by hand or sneezed on them does not make it possible, on that basis alone, to hold that those foodstuffs were not protected against any contamination likely to render them unfit for human consumption, injurious to health or contaminated in such a way that it would be unreasonable to expect them to be consumed in that state. In that regard, account must be taken of the measures taken by the operators under Article 5 of Regulation No 852/2004 in order to prevent, eliminate or reduce to acceptable levels the hazard which the contamination referred to in paragraph 3 of Chapter IX of Annex II to that regulation may present. It cannot be concluded that the measures taken by the operators were insufficient without duly taking into consideration the possible expert evidence submitted by those operators to show that such containers do not pose hygiene problems. (see paras 22-24, operative part)