• 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

The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) today initiated, with a common workshop, the Czech-Austrian project “Co-operation of Czech and Austrian food inspectors in the Czech-Austrian cross-border region”. The CAFIA Inspectorates in Brno and Tábor, and relevant control authorities of Lower and Upper Austria are involved in the project.

In the course of the working meeting, the participants from either country acquainted themselves with food control systems and their results in Lower and Upper Austria regions and, on the contrary, with the CAFIA work in South Moravia and South Bohemia regions. They also discussed the most current EC regulations. Regulation 178/2002/EC that, among others, deals with the general principles and requirements of food law and lays down procedures in matters of food safety, and Regulation 882/2004/EC on official controls of foodstuffs are fundamental regulations that concern practically all operators in the field of food industry. The initial workshop will be followed up by exchange study visits of Czech and Austrian inspectors in the forthcoming months.

The objective of the nine-month project is to exchange know-how and experience in the field of control procedure methods and control instruments, to transmit information about the quality of supervision of food safety, as well as to establish personal contacts. The project should thus result in the establishment of information network based on mutual relationships and knowledge of partners working in the Czech-Austrian cross-border regions. On its basis, further co-operation can be established in the future. Better mutual awareness could thus lead to the strengthening of consumer confidence in foodstuffs produced in neighbouring regions, and contribute to the strengthening of trade exchange of food products. The total CAFIA´s costs represent more than CZK 600,000, out of which 75% will be reimbursed from EU resources.

The Community initiatives to which the INTERREG IIIA project belongs are specific programmes introduced by the European Commission to solve specific problems concerning the entire EU territory. They are supplemented by other EC programmes or facilitate their implementation. The aim of the INTERREG IIIA Initiative is to support cross-border
co-operation of neighbouring regions of the Member States.

The CAFIA has rich experience in the field of international projects. So far, the CAFIA has received assistance from the European Union through three projects of the PHARE programme, the last one was finished this year, and on the other PHARE project the CAFIA co-operated in previous years. The CAFIA thus gained EUR 3,250,000 from EU resources
(i.e. CZK 97,500,000). Furthermore, the CAFIA participated in the QUID Thematic Network project, implemented within the 5th framework programme, on the DIGIT-ROSTLINA project, based on Czech-Flemish co-operation, and it was also involved in international project SAFE FOOD all over Europe.