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5.  THE RAPID ALERT SYSTEM FOR FOOD AND FEED – RASFF

The RASFF system is established as a network for reporting direct or indirect threats to the people’s health originating in food or feed, and includes the European Commission, the EU member countries and the European Food Safety Authority. The information exchange among the RASFF participants aims at preventing from putting into circulation or at recalling from circulation such food or feed which pose a threat to people’s health and have been exported to another territory from a particular country.

The exchange of information on products that threaten people’s health between the CR and the European Commission is ensured through a National Contact Place (NCP) for the RASFF system, i.e. in the CR through individual participants and co-operating institutions.

On the meeting of the Co-ordination Group for Food Safety on June 5, 2002, the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority was appointed as National Contact Place for the CR.

Individual participants of the RASFF system in the CR include the State Veterinary Administration of the CR (SVA CR) and the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) as supervisory bodies; the Public Health Protection Authorities (OOVZ), the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (CISTA), and under the Food Act, s. 14, par. 2), it is the General Staff of the Ministry of Defence and the General Directorate of the Prisons Service of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior. The co-operating institutions include the General Directorate of Customs (GŘ cel) and the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SÚJB). The co-ordination place is the Secretariat of the Co-ordination Group of Food Safety of the Ministry of Agriculture.

An important condition, which must be met to include a notification into the system, is that the food represents a serious health detriment, and according to the data available, it is probably in the market of more than one EU country. This means that information on products of local nature is not transferred in this network, as it would deteriorate the system’s capacity and orientation within it.

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed in the CR is based on Regulation No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and Commission (EC), of January 28, 2002, which sets forth general principles and requirements of the food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and stipulating principles concerning food safety.