CAFIA Control Activities

12/17/2012
 
A distillery operator (DO) is, pursuant to Article 3 (3) of EC Regulation No. 178/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 (hereinafter the “Regulation” only), a food business operator. A DO is a natural or a legal person responsible for ensuring that the requirements of food law are met within the food business he manages.A grower’s distillery is, according to Article 3 (2), a food business because it is an undertaking, whether for profit or not and whether public or private, carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production (spirits), or processing (fruit/fermentation) of foodstuffs. According to Article 3 (3), food legislation, which means legal regulations and administrative provisions regulating foodstuffs in general, and food safety in particular, whether at Community or national level, apply to the DO; it covers any stage of production, processing and distribution of foodstuffs.
EC Regulation No. 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (hereinafter the “Regulation on Hygiene” only) lays down general rules for distillery operators on the grower’s distillery hygiene. However, this Regulation shall not apply to domestic preparation, handling or storage of food for private domestic consumption. Pursuant to the Act on Spirits, a grower’s distillation of alcohol is the production of fruit spirit for the grower; it means preparation of spirits from the grower’s fermentation, sometimes its storage for private domestic consumption. According to Section 4 of the Act on Spirits, a grower is a natural person who grows fruit on his private land or land which he uses for other legal reasons, or also his employees who obtain fruit as a benefit in kind. Restrictions of growers following from Section 4 of the Act on Spirits states that:
  • fruit spirit made by fruit – grower’s distillation must not be sold
  • a grower is not allowed to have made more than 30 litres of ethanol from his own supplied material per one production period, even if fruit-growing is made by other people who are household members
  • it is a seasonal activity, because the production period is from 1 July of the current year to 30 June of the year immediately following

A grower’s distillation of alcohol is not a domestic preparation of food for private domestic consumption. According to the standpoint of DG SANCO, the term “domestic” is used for activities that are performed for private domestic consumption in the household. In other words, a grower’s distillation of alcohol in the grower’s distillery, as a food business, whether for profit or not and whether public or private, and activities related to fruit distillery such as processing and distribution of fruit/fermentation and production of spirits, are subject to EU food law.
CAFIA is responsible for enforcement of the hygiene requirements laid down by Regulation No. 852/2004 on food hygiene, because the regulation applies to a grower’s distillery as to the production of food for private domestic consumption.
According to Article 6 (2) of Regulation No. 852/2004, every food business operator shall notify the appropriate competent authority, in this case CAFIA (because it is subject to its inspection).
According to Article 2 of the Regulation, a grower’s fruit or fermentation as well as spirits from fruit distillery are foodstuffs, because they are intended to be or reasonably expected to be consumed by humans. According to Section 4 (1) of Act No. 61/1997 on Spirits, as amended, permission for a grower’s distillery, which is necessary and is based on Czech legislation, is issued by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Grower’s distillery permission says, inter alia, that a distillery operator shall observe the relevant provisions of the Act on Spirits, Decrees No. 150/2008 and No. 141/1997, as amended, and further legislation related to this activity (requirements for quality and safety of fruit brandies and hygiene requirements). CAFIA has the competence to enforce legal requirements for fruit brandies quality, fruit brandies that may be dangerous to human health, fruit and fermentation just as if it is related to any stage of fruit brandy production (failure of equipment).The owner of fruit, fermentation and also brandies is not the DO but the grower who is not, according to Regulation No. 178/2002, a food business operator, so he is not inspected by CAFIA. If a grower would like to complain about the spirit quality from a grower’s distillation, he has to give the sample to a commercial accredited laboratory to carry out analyses; CAFIA does not provide such analyses.
 
 

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