22. 12. 87 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 347/1 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Directive on the official inspection of foodstuffs (!) 
(87/C 347/01) 
On 15 January 1987 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, 
under Article 100 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the 
abovementioned proposal. 
The Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs, which 
was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 
29 September 1987 in the light of the report by Mr Hilkens. 
At its 249th plenary session (meeting of 21 October 1987) the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted unanimously the following Opinion: 
1. The Committee supports the Commission pro­
posal subject to the following comments. 
Whilst the Commission has adopted a number of points 
from the previous Opinion on the new approach to the 
foodstuffs market (2), the Committee would, however, 
draw particular attention to the passages in that 
Opinion concerning competition and foodstuff quality 
and official inspection (sections 4 and 5). 
2. General comments 
2.1. A framework Directive 
2.1.1. This is a framework Directive and it needs to 
be more specific on a number of points. 
2.1.2. The effectiveness of this Directive will be 
determined to a large extent by subsequent legislation 
in certain important areas covered by the Directive. 
The Committee feels that further legislation is needed 
with respect to the organization of inspection, sampling 
and hygiene criteria. EC provisions must be adopted in 
these areas in the near future. 2.2. Scope of inspection 
2.2.1. The Commission proposal seeks through har­
monization of inspection to preclude or minimize the 
risks of impairment of human health and of fraud 
through incorrect labelling. 
2.2.2. The Committee assumes that public health can 
also mean health and that fraud is to be interpreted as 
meaning any infringement, whether wilful or through 
negligence, of national or Community provisions, 
including the labelling rules. The legal consequences of 
this should be clearly defined (see point 2.4). The term 
fraud ought to be replaced by 'deception and/or mis­
leading descriptions' in order to avoid potential legal 
complications in the application of the Directive. 
2.2.3. The Committee would draw the Commission's 
attention to the fact that the Member States' rules on 
the labelling and presentation of products still differ 
appreciably and that this could give rise to considerable 
difficulties in the application of this Directive. It would 
therefore urge that rapid progress be made in the har­
monization of the Member States' labelling provisions. 
(!) OJ No C 20, 27. 1. 1987, p. 6. 
(2) OJ No C 328, 22. 12. 1986. 2.2.4. The draft Directive requires the Member 
States to inspect products destined for the markets of 
No C 347/2 Official Journal of the European Communities 22. 12. 87 
other Member States in the same way as products 
destined for their domestic market. 
2.2.5. In view of the sheer volume and diversity of 
labelling rules in the various Member States, labelling 
checks should be carried out in the importing country 
or region. 
2.2.6. Standards in the case of foodstuffs exported 
to third countries must be in keeping with the import 
regulations of the importing country, particularly as 
regards the health aspects. If the country of final import 
is not known or there are no relevant import regu­
lations, the foodstuffs must not fall short of the require­
ments specified in Community rules. 
2.2.7. The Committee, like the Commission, feels 
that inspections should cover all stages of production 
and distribution. In particular the Committee urges that 
raw materials be subject to inspection. It should also 
be ensured that checks (i.e. inspection and sampling) 
are carried out partly without prior warning. 
2.2.8. The Committee asks the Commission to con­
sider the case for drafting guidelines on the manufac­
ture, quality or other characteristics of foodstuffs which 
are important in determining whether or not a product 
may be placed on the market. These guidelines would 
be a valuable aid for the official inspection bodies in 
the Member States and would provide the food industry 
with a yardstick for fair manufacturers' and trade prac­
tices. Experience in this field should be exchanged in 
order to arrive at guidelines which should be formulated 
with the cooperation of the scientific world, the food­
stuff inspection bodies, consumers and the food 
industry. 
2.2.9. Finally, the Commission is asked to examine 
the question of a preventive approach towards food 
inspection. With due regard for a suitable regional 
distribution in the Community, leading institutions in 
the field might be commissioned to carry out research 
on the methodology of foodstuff inspection, or on 
certain aspects of foodstuffs. 
2.3. Standard of inspection personnel 
2.3.1. The effectiveness of inspections will be deter­
mined in large measure by the competence and avail­
ability of the staff carrying out the checks. Consider­
ation should be given to the possibility of introducing 
EC provisions on the basic and further training of 
those responsible for inspection, their tasks and their 
independence. The criteria for this would have to be 
laid down at EC level in a Directive. 
2.3.2. The quality of the laboratories involved is of 
fundamental importance for effective foodstuff moni­
toring. The EC should lay down clear Community 
criteria in this area, like those already proposed by the Commission in other spheres (e.g. good laboratory 
practice for the non-clinical testing of chemicals) (1). 
2.3.3. The Committee would like to draw attention 
to the possibility of setting up a Community body to 
coordinate and harmonize national inspection services. 
2.3.4. At all events, it is desirable that there should 
be clear recognition of the certificates issued by the 
individual Member States in the sphere of food inspec­
tion. A watertight system of code numbers for each 
firm and each area and for each inspection laboratory 
should be introduced, as proposed in the Commission 
working document on batch identification. 
Only in this way can checks on the manufacturer be 
ultimately ensured. Such code systems have already 
proved their worth in other sectors. It must be possible 
to act swiftly, particularly in cases where there is a risk 
to human health. Information could be passed quickly 
to the national inspection bodies by means of such a 
code system. 
2.4. Penalties 
The Committee urges that the Directive requires the 
Member States to prescribe suitable penalties for 
infringements of the health and labelling rules. 
2.5. Health information and education 
2.5.1. In addition to effective checks, the Committee 
also attaches great importance to consumer information 
and education as a way of helping people to make safe, 
healthy and informed choices regarding foodstuffs. 
2.5.2. In schools education in health matters is given 
only as a marginal concern and is hardly effective 
enough to convince pupils of the importance of a 
sensible and healthy life style. It is therefore suggested 
that health education be integrated into school curricula 
and that modern teaching methods be used for this 
subject. Teachers should receive special training in this 
area. 
2.6. The Committee urges the Commission to draw 
up a systematic summary of all foodstuff rules for the 
information of all concerned. 
3. Specific comments 
Article 1 (4) 
The Committee notes that there is an EC Directive 
on the approximation of the Member States' laws on 
metrological inspection methods. 
(') OJ No C 232, 31. 8. 1987. 
22. 12. 87 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 347/3 
Weights and measures are a major aspect of foodstuff 
policy. Monitoring of the weights and volumes of food­
stuffs offered for sale is thus no less important than 
checks on content and the health aspects. Research on 
weights and measures methodology should be organ­
ized and coordinated at Community level. A compre­
hensive flow of information to the inspection bodies 
concerned and mutual assistance with training would 
be of great value here. 
The Committee points out that effective metrological 
checks are also important with regard to the inspection 
of labelling. The Directive should require food inspec­
torates to report any discrepancies detected in this area 
to the weights and measures authorities. 
Article 3 
Paragraph 1 (a), which states that inspections shall be 
carried out 'regularly', should be more precisely worded 
(See point 2.2.8 of the General Comments). 
Article 4 
With reference to Articles 4 and 5, the Committee feels 
that, whilst checks carried out by firms themselves are 
essential and must therefore always take place on a 
sufficient scale, they cannot replace or entail a reduction 
in inspections by official bodies. 
Article 5 (1) 
With reference to Article 5 (1), the Committee suggests 
that packaging material be added to the list of points 
subject to inspection. 
Article 5 (2) 
The Committee interprets this passage in the proposal 
to mean that all staff bearing any kind of responsibility 
for the production process and who may be able to 
provide relevant information on the subject can be 
interviewed. 
Article 6 
Packaging materials should be included in Article 6 (1). 
Done at Brussels, 21 October 1987. This Article should also stipulate that if required, a 
second sample is to be taken, which should remain at 
the undertaking under seal so that the undertaking 
can, if necessary, have a check test carried out by a 
recognized body. 
Article 7 
The Committee wonders whether this Article could not 
be more clearly worded. The second paragraph should 
be reworded to stipulate that the examination of staff 
shall relate to: 
a) medical aspects (medical certificate). This is such 
an important area that Community rules regulating 
it will be needed in the foreseeable future; 
b) personal cleanliness and clothing. 
Article 8 
It is very important that inspectors should continue 
to be able to examine in strict confidence documents 
relating to manufacturing processes. The principle of 
professional secrecy established in Article 10 should of 
course be applied here. 
Article 11 
The Committee welcomes the provision in Article 11 
concerning annual sampling programmes. 
It wonders, however, what the Commission intends to 
do with these sampling programmes when they have 
been collected. 
The Commission should make the data collected avail­
able to the authorities concerned with food inspection 
in the Member States, with a view to promoting health 
and safety. 
Article 11 (2) 
The 1 May deadline for the submission of reports on 
the application of the sampling programmes is not 
realistic. The Committee suggests that 1 July should 
instead be set as the deadline. 
Article 12 
The Committee is pleased that the Commission is to 
publish the list of approved laboratories in the Official 
Journal. 
It urges that communications between Community lab­
oratories be developed, so that they can make rapid 
direct contact with each other. 
The Committee thinks that use should be made here of 
modern means of communication. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alfons MARGOT