Having made a necessary distinction between the Authority and the Agency, in relation to their legal nature and the functions attributed to them, the objectives, functions and bodies of the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) are illustrated, as the European Agency for technical-scientific support to European institutions when assessing risk in the agri-food sector, based on the precautionary principle, with its management then left to the Commission. While acknowledging the reasons underlying the functional separation between risk assessment and risk management, we highlight the need increasingly felt by consumers for food quality, which combines the safety and hygiene of the product with a qualitative quid pluris, which wants to avoid (for example in the production process) the use of factors that are ascertained as safe (think of the use of antibiotics in livestock farming, pesticides or GMOs in agriculture), but which are likely to negatively impact the quality of the final product and, in the long term (if not immediately), on human and animal health and the environment. From this perspective, it seems appropriate to expand the functions of EFSA, with the regulatory and sanctioning activity, in addition to the consultative one, which characterize the authorities at national level, so that the same, as it is equipped with the necessary technical- scientific, can face the new challenges of the agri-food regime to guarantee the quality of life.
L’EFSA: dall’attività consultiva al potere sanzionatorio per l’effettiva garanzia della sicurezza e qualità alimentare
Granara Daniele
2024-01-01
Abstract
Having made a necessary distinction between the Authority and the Agency, in relation to their legal nature and the functions attributed to them, the objectives, functions and bodies of the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) are illustrated, as the European Agency for technical-scientific support to European institutions when assessing risk in the agri-food sector, based on the precautionary principle, with its management then left to the Commission. While acknowledging the reasons underlying the functional separation between risk assessment and risk management, we highlight the need increasingly felt by consumers for food quality, which combines the safety and hygiene of the product with a qualitative quid pluris, which wants to avoid (for example in the production process) the use of factors that are ascertained as safe (think of the use of antibiotics in livestock farming, pesticides or GMOs in agriculture), but which are likely to negatively impact the quality of the final product and, in the long term (if not immediately), on human and animal health and the environment. From this perspective, it seems appropriate to expand the functions of EFSA, with the regulatory and sanctioning activity, in addition to the consultative one, which characterize the authorities at national level, so that the same, as it is equipped with the necessary technical- scientific, can face the new challenges of the agri-food regime to guarantee the quality of life.
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