EU commissioner for health and consumer protection David Byrne emphasised the importance of food safety and self-regulation. "My approach is to work with sound science, solid legislation, effective controls and comprehensible communication," said Byrne in a video statement to the conference. "The ultimate aim is to give consumers a choice between a wide vareity of safe products. To respond to our citizens' demands, EU food legislation is one of the strictest in the world. At the same time it is proportionate to the risks posed by foodstuffs. Based on the risk assessment advice of the European Food Safety Authority, I make decisions taking into account how public health is best protected, but not forgetting that a zero-risk situation is impossible to achieve. Ultimately, regulation therefore needs to be managed by EU food and feed producers themselves."

Byrne told delegates that as the EU's consumers have strong views on the importance of food safety, "this is an area in which harmonisation of legislation at EU level rather than setting different national standards is essential," he said.

EurepGAP chairman Nigel Garbutt welcomed more than 350 delegates as he explained how change is sweeping the industry. "There is increasing legislation which sets the parameters within which everyone must operate and in so doing charging us to become increasingly active as well as vigilant. EurepGAP is at the forefront of verifying compliance with these changing requirements and as such bears a heavy responsibility," he said. "I hope this event will help producers in a practical way by raising awareness of new issues and afterwards by providing a forum by which together we can continue to find solutions."

Garbutt paid tribute to those 10,000 producers who have achieved EurepGAP certification and stressed their importance as the first link in the supply chain. "On the surface they all present deifferent scenarios, but producers and distributors share a common goal embodied in EurepGAP and can learn from each other," said the EurepGAP chairman. "I would like to see...the closest possible relationships with other trade organisations and closer involvement of consumer representatives themselves in farm assurance. This is the real path to global harmonisation."

Speakers and delegates due at the three-day event included producer and exporter representatives from Israel, Australia, Chile, Italy and Spain and retail delegates from Waitrose, Safeway, Somerfield, Suerquinn, Delhaize, Eroski and Ahold. A highlight of the agenda for the last two days which was dominated by fresh produce issues was the introduction of industry management boards and the new 2004 EurepGAP protocol for produce and for flowers and ornamentals.

More on the conference will be available in next week's Journal and on freshinfo from Monday.

Topics