• Entrepreneurs
• Business information
• Certification
• CAFIA laboratories
• CAFIA opinions
• More information
• Consumers
• How to know the food market
• Results of CAFIA inspections
• Consumer rights
• List of risky sites
• Hoaxes
• Other visitors
• Press Releases
• Internships at CAFIA
• Public contracts

Active legislation

In 2001 CAFIA focused on the preparation of an amendment to the Act on the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (No. 63/1998 Coll. of L.), as determined in the government plan of legislative activities. However, with view to a high number of drafted changes going beyond the scope of the amendment, it was decided to draw up and submit to the government a bill on the State Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority. The bill responds both to the need of changes arising from the implementation of food controls in the Czech Republic and to the necessity of harmonising the food control in the CR with the EU laws. The bill that will be fully harmonised with the EU law was submitted to the government in September 2001.

It is useful to mention among the EU requirements that were incorporated in the bill, e.g., the obligation of laboratories analysing the food samples for the control purposes to use accredited methods and comply with the requirements for good laboratory methods, or the CAFIA (SZPI) obligation to cooperate in the execution of the inspections not only, as for now, with the appropriate national public service agencies, but also with the respective EU bodies in the case of serious facts jeopardizing or being apt to put in jeopardy the consumer protection.

Although, the new bill on CAFIA (SZPI) does not represent only the adjustments of CAFIA (SZPI) rights and duties. It also requires adjustments of the Act on Food and Tobacco products (No. 110/1997 Coll. of L.). E.g., the business entities distributing or exporting fresh fruit or vegetables, or table potatoes will be obliged to notify CAFIA (SZPI) at the latest the same day when the commodity will be put into circulation or exported.

In addition to the above bill, CAFIA drew up a motion for the decree on testing methods and methods of sampling for the purpose of identifying quality and food safety.

Passive legislation

CAFIA carefully followed the course of legislative events for the whole of past year and was regularly sending to the competent ministries comments or statements within the scope of interdepartmental debate on new bills or decrees. They were mainly the bill on viticulture and wine production, bill on packing, bill on the protection of indication of origin, bill on chemical substances and products, and decree on frozen food, decree on classification of the animals for slaughter and meat sold at butcher stores, decree determining food fragrances or the decree on the method of determination of critical points.

Similarly as in the previous years, also in 2001 CAFIA took an active part in the preparation and process of amendment to the implementing provisions for the laws serving CAFIA as the legal basis for their controls.

Furthermore, CAFIA took an active part in the work of technical committees for standardisation (TNK) established at the Czech Institute for Standardisation (TNK No. 116 Food; TNK No. 6 Quality Control). CAFIA participates, on a regular basis, in debates on the motions for the Czech technical standards (CSN), being developed and implemented in the Czech Republic. Last year CAFIA submitted amendments to altogether 67 standards, of which 27 referred to the testing methods and in forty cases the standards were applying to a specific subject of regulation.