Rapport nr - SIFO

Appendix1. French safety regulation1.1. AFSSA (French Agency for Food Sanitary Safety of food)The AFSSA (French Agency for Food Safety Security) evaluates the safety of human andanimal feed, and it is managed not only by the Health Ministry but also by the AgriculturalMinistry and Economical Ministry (DGCCRF). It is a public organization structured into differentfields such as scientific laboratory support (i.e. managing biological laboratories linkedto food research), advice and veterinary products authorization.Its aims to control each step of the process, from the production to the commercialization offood (production, transformation, conservation, transport, storage and distribution). Theseevaluations are made for vegetable and animal foods but also for drinkable water and productsused in food manufacturing (e.g. plant health products, veterinary medicaments, etc.).Another goal of the AFSSA is to evaluate the food nutritional risk, for other parameters thansafety dangers, and animal diseases. The AFSSA is obliged to alert the Heath and AgricultureMinistries if there is a health risk for consumers. The AFSSA has to give its opinion and thenpublish recommendations for foods. This agency does not have any power in safety police,except in the case of veterinary medicine but can be implicated in the management of foodcrisis. These previously described roles also involve other organizations associated withsafety police like the DSV (Veterinary Services Direction) or the DGCCRF (Competition,Consumption and Repression of Frauds General Direction).1.2. DGCCRF (General Department for Competition, Consumption and FraudRepression)Contrary to the AFSSA, the DGCCRF depends on the Ministry of Industry, Economy andFinance. The three spheres of activity of the DGCCRF are:- Competing regulation of the markets- The economic protection of the consumer- Consumer safetyThe role of the DGCCRF involves the control of the goods and services exchanged. It surveysand directly controls the market, such as, for instance, to control the temperature of thestorage of perishable products in restaurants. The DGCCRF publishes advices and rules concerningthe conditions of storage, ingredients used in food manufacturing process (i.e. consumptionpractice cards). Furthermore, the DGCCRF has a role of control: it can give infringements,close a shop/restaurant if the safety obligations are not respected. With respectto consumer safety, the objective is to preserve the physical safety and health of consumers.The DGCCRF intervenes on all products, on every level of food (production, importation,distribution).1.3. DSV (Veterinary Services Direction)The DSV is not a state agency like the AFSSA, but rather it depends on the Agricultural Ministry(a delocalized service) and involves all aspects of animals used in food production. The