Food and feed safety simplification omnibus

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the overall thrust of the food and feed simplification package which should reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and costs, but stresses that any simplification must not compromise the EU’s high standards for food and feed safety, environmental protection, and public health, and that further simplification would have been helpful;
• highlights the importance of regulatory quality and the need to consolidate the role of civil society in the monitoring and enforcement of the legislation;
• welcomes the proposal to facilitate greater use of drones for spraying pesticides while at the same time emphasises the need for proper protections and safeguards for the health and environment of non-farmer rural residents and of all workers;
• believes that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) should have the right to raise the alarm on the need for targeted reassessments of active substances with unlimited approval and should be asked to give an opinion on the appropriateness of any particular grace period; 
• views positively the acceleration and simplification of the authorisation processes for biocontrol products; 
• calls for grace periods to be harmonised at the highest level of protection across the entire EU and mutual recognitions to be facilitated;
• supports the authorisation of plant protection products (PPPs) containing EU-approved active substances for seed treatments intended for export, provided such use complies with the regulatory requirements of the destination country;
• proposes that private sanitary and certification analyses carried out by companies be recognised as official to simplify the export procedure of PPPs to non-EU countries, alongside stricter controls and fines by the authorities to allow for such recognition;
• while recognising the importance of equivalence of standards, is concerned by the elimination of import tolerances for certain substances not authorised in the EU, and considers that an impact assessment is essential for such major changes, in line with the precautionary principle and potential implications for all actors in the chain who rely heavily on imports;
• considers that biocontrol substances should be allowed to use heavy metals such as copper, provided that human, animal and soil health and biodiversity are guaranteed;
• is of the view that an economically viable alternative with an equivalent level of effectiveness should be available before withdrawing an active substance that is a candidate for substitution;
• considers that the EU must uphold the highest standards of transparency and safety in novel foods and genetically modified foods;
• calls for the harmonisation of seed labelling to include relevant precautionary and risk management measures.