All these facts lay high requirements for invention and force to select different and more effective procedures in order to ensure efficient control. Having in mind the permanent development in the field of food production, it is necessary to proceed in amending the legal regulations that set requirements for foodstuffs.

CAFIA participates in the process of creation of new legislation in the form of presenting comments. Some regulations have already been amended, whereas the work on other regulations, both laws and decrees, is in various stages of progress. The key regulation is the Food Law, the amended version of which should enter into force in the course of the year 2000. A new legal regulation, on the basis of which CAFIA provides information from January 1, 2000, is the Act No. 106/1999 Coll., on Free Access to Information.

This report presents a summary of results of control obtained by CAFIA in 1999. CAFIA focused on the observance of obligations arising from the legal regulations, paying special attention to food safety and adulterations (exposures of "adulteration").

A significant part of inspection activities is carried out as target control. Therefore, the results given in this report cannot be interpreted as global survey of food safety and quality in the Czech Republic.

The number of data specified in the text, diagrams and tables are limited due to the extent of this report that is not intended to provide such detailed results of analyses, but its task is to provide initial information only.

CAFIA and its inspection activities are confronted every day with a system of surveillance valid in the EU as well as with the consumer interests. This is where CAFIA gathers numerous suggestions for its own activities.

Principles of the future European policy concentrating on food safety issues are defined in White Paper on Food Safety. Its key terms are "risk assessment" - "risk management" - "risk communication". CAFIA used those principles as a basis for its own activities during 1999 and is going to proceed in line with them also in the future.

Brno, 2000-02-01