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Foreign Affairs

06/21/2022
 

II. Projects

Together for Better Foodstuffs

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In the first half of 2022, the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority together with the Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs and Cohesion has been implemented already the second cross-border cooperation project, this time under the title "Together for Better Foodstuffs". Around 25 people, mainly inspectors, were involved on behalf of CAFIA.

On behalf of our Authority, the inspectorates in Ústí nad Labem and Plzeň took part, while on the Saxon side, the supervisory authorities from the districts of Dresden, Mittelsachsen, Sächsische Schweiz - Osterzgebirg and Görlitz were involved, with a total of c. 50 people taking part.

As in the case of the previous cross-border projects, the aim here was, in addition to familiarisation with approaches to inspection activities, to strengthen cooperation and establish contacts between the inspectors in the cross-border region. The project started in March in Karlovy Vary with a theoretical part, which was immediately followed by exchange visits of Saxon inspectors at the CAFIA inspectorates, and then by a theoretical part in Dresden followed by exchanges of Czech inspectors at Saxon supervisory authorities in individual districts. Afterwards, a visit of the high-level group at the Saxon Ministry took place, and the project was concluded in Dresden in the middle of June 2022.

The exchange visits of the groups consisted of 4 persons lasted 3 days, and they included a joint theoretical part and a visit to the regional inspectorate or the control body, where the procedures of the respective authority concerning food inspections were introduced, current problems and selected  inspection topics were discussed, followed by visits to food business operators. These visits to the operators were carried out within the scope of the competences of both supervisory authorities and, in the framework of this project, they were focused in particular on public catering establishments.

The total costs of the project for both partners amount to EUR 55,000, 85% of which is subsequently reimbursed by the European Regional Development Fund.

Cross-border co-operation in the field of food inspection between the Czech Republic and Poland

logo_2019.jpgAnother project implemented by CAFIA together with Polish Inspection Authority of Quality of Agricultural and Food Products (Inspekcja Jakości Handlowej Artykułów Rolno – Spożywczych) followed-up to previous projects with similar focus. The project was implemented within the Interreg V-A Czech Republic – Poland Programme under title Safe and Quality Foodstuffs on Both Sides of Borders. The project has been implemented from January to June 2019 with c. 30 CAFIA employees involved.

Similarly as in case of co-operation with previous partners on the other side of the borders, the aim of the project is, beside familiarization with approaches to inspection activities of the counterpart, also strengthening the co-operation and making contacts with inspectors in the cross-border region of the CR and Poland. The project is launched by initial conference followed by exchange visits on both sides of the borders. Final conference will be held in the very end and the whole project will be summed up.

On behalf of CAFIA, inspectorates in Ústí n. Labem, Hradec Králové and Olomouc are involved, their counterparts in Poland are then inspectorates in Wroclaw, Katowice and Opole. The total of 70 persons is involved in the project.

A bilingual electronic leaflet summarizing the whole project is also a constituent of the project - see below.

The overall costs of both project partners amount almost to 50 thousand EUR, out of which 85% will be reimbursed from the European Fond for Regional Development.

Cross-border Co-operation in the Field of Food Safety between the Czech Republic and the Free State of Bavaria

Another project followed up to 3 previous projects with similar focus. This project was implemented together with the Bavarian State Ministry of Environment and Health within the Cíl 3 Programme. The project was carried out from March to June 2013 and about 30 CAFIA employees participated. Likewise in case of co-operation with Slovak, Austrian and Saxony partners, the aim was also to strengthen mutual co-operation and establish contacts among inspectors in the cross-border region. CAFIA and its partner signed an Agreement on Mutual Co-operation which provided for a framework for further activities in the future.

Inspectorates in Tábor and Pilsen took part in the project activities. The second part of borders was represented by the mentioned Bavarian State Ministry of Environment and Health, local authorities in Oberfranken, Oberpfalz and Niederbayern and also by the Bavarian Land Health and Food Safety Authority in Erlangen. In total approximately 60 persons participated in the project.

A bilingual electronic leaflet was created within this project summarizing its content.

System of Management Training to Strengthen the Capacity and Effectiveness of the Czech Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority

logo.jpgIn the period 10/2010 - 10/2012, CAFIA implemented a project under the operational programme Human Resources and Employment, entitled "System of Management Training to Strengthen the Capacity and Effectiveness of the Czech Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority." The target group consisted of middle and top managers from CAFIA and the training was focused on the deepening, improvement and practical usage of, especially, soft skills. The personnel audit which has been carried out during the current project was developed in order to refine the learning needs of CAFIA staff. The educational package consisted of 6 trainings for the middle management and 4 trainings for the top management attended approximately 60 employees of CAFIA. Trainings were held in the first half of 2012 and they were concluded by joint teambuilding. Within the project, a brochure and equipment for the improvement of training were purchased.

Cross-border Co-operation in the Field of Food Safety between the Czech Republic and the Free State of Saxony

Following on from two previous projects within the framework of the Goal 3 Programme to promote cross-border co-operation between the Czech Republic and the Free State of Saxony, another project aimed at strengthening co-operation and contacts between inspectors in the border regions was implemented in January-April, 2011. The project also created the brochure entitled "Grenzübeschreitende Zusammenarbeit - Cross-border Co-operation", which presents the form of a comprehensive system to ensure food safety and quality on both sides of the border.

The project involved the CAFIA Inspectorates in Ústí nad Labem and in Plzeň. The project partner was the Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection and its subordinate bodies.

Strengthening Co-operation and the Development of Networks between Border Regions of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Official Food Control

On the basis of the positive feedback from the joint Czech-Austrian project under INTERREG, CAFIA decided to use funds from the ETC (see below) to strengthen the institutional co-operation between CAFIA and the State Veterinary and Food Administration of the Slovak Republic and create a network of personal contacts between inspectors operating in the border regions of both countries.

This project within the realms of the European Territorial Co-operation - S.R.-C.R. entitled "Strengthening Co-operation and the Development of Networks between Border Regions of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Official Food Control" was implemented in the first half of 2009. The project involved the CAFIA Inspectorates in Brno and Olomouc, general co-ordination was carried out by the International Co-operation Department of the CAFIA Central Inspectorate. The project partner was the State Veterinary and Food Administration of the Slovak Republic, respectively, the Regional Veterinary and Food Administrations in Žilina, Trenčín and Trnava.

Strengthening the Knowledge Base on Food Adulteration (FOOD FRAUD)

The inspiration for the twinning project, which was implemented between January and July 2009, was a working group report by the informal organisation of employees of official control bodies - FLEP. The project aims to comprehensively describe problems of food adulteration, misleading labelling, and to evaluate the appropriate tools for the detection of deceptive practices by producers and traders. The project included 5 workshops and 2 thematic internships for laboratory staff. The project partner was BMELV - Federal Ministry for Food Safety, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Germany.

Improving the implementation of the acquis in the area of Food Safety inspection (IAFS)

This twinning project, which was implemented in the first half of 2009, focused on different areas of the Acquis communautaire concerning the official control of foodstuffs. The project partner was the Austrian Institute AGES - Agency for Health and Food Safety. 

The project reflected continually evolving EC food laws and its long-term effort was to improve CAFIA control activities. The project is focused on the enforcement of European food law and strengthening of our inspection and laboratory capacity. The means for achieving these goals were series of seminars and workshops in the Czech Republic and internships in the AGES agency´s laboratories. The project contained a total of fifteen different thematic training activities and five study internships.

Strengthening the Food Law Enforcement by the State Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority (ENCA)

The project itself consisted of two parts. The first part was implemented in the first half of 2007 and included the delivery of the liquid chromatograph equipment for the CAFIA laboratory in Prague. The follow-up twinning part took place from September 2007 to June 2008 and included a total of 10 training activities divided into fourteen workshops and two foreign internships. The twinning partner was the Central Science Laboratory (CSL) from the United Kingdom.

Comprehensive staff training in relation to risk management and communication

In May, 2006 eight-month twinning project entitled "Comprehensive staff training in relation to risk management and communication" was commenced. This project is funded from the Transition Facility Programme and implemented under the leadership of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit). The main components of the project are training, workshops and internships designed for all levels of employees. Project activities are focused on management and risk communication in accordance with applicable EC legislation.

Another twinning project was conducted in years 2007 to 2008 and was oriented on the training of employees with regard to the new requirements of EC legislation and the development of analytical control methods.

Strengthening the Official Control System of Food of Non-animal Origin coming from the Third Countries

In the first half of 2006 the Authority took part in twinning project entitled "Strengthening the Official Control System of Food of Non-Animal Origin Coming from Third Countries" (OFFCOS). The project was implemented under the Transition Facility Programme under the leadership of the Dutch supervisory authority Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit (VWA). The aim of the project was to fulfill the obligations imposed on CAFIA in the check of food imports of non-animal origin coming from third countries.

Co-operation between Czech and Austrian food inspectors in the Czech-Austrian border region

In the period between 09/2005 and 05/2006 our authority was involved in the project to improve collaboration with Austrian food safety inspectors realised within the Community Initiative "INTERREG IIIA". On the Czech side, the CAFIA Inspectorates in Tábor and Brno were involved in the project. The Austrian side were represented in the project by Amt der Oberösterreichischen Landesregierung - Government of Upper Austria and Amt der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung - Government of Lower Austria. The main aim of the project was to facilitate exchange visits by Czech CAFIA inspectors in Austria and Austrian food safety inspectors in the Czech Republic. The project was co-financed from the state budget of the Czech Republic.

SAFE FOOD all over Europe

In the years 2004 - 2005, CAFIA took part in the international project "SAFE FOOD all over Europe", which was realised as a part of the Small Phare programme and financed with funding from the European Commission. The project was coordinated by the Italian Regional Administration - Regione Veneto. The aim of the project was to facilitate the exchange of experience and information between experts on food safety issues in Central and Southern Europe. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovenia were represented in the project.

DIGIT-ROSTLINA

The DIGIT-PLANT project, which involves Czech-Flemish cooperation, has been running since 2003, and is aimed at creating tools for vegetable producers in the Czech Republic and Belgium, on the basis of EU trading standards for different commodities. The project involves representatives from the KHK Geel - Katholike Hogschool Kempen, University of Agriculture in Prague, representatives of the Vegetable Union of Bohemia and Moravia, CAFIA and the Dutch audit office Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit - VWA. CAFIA is involved in taking photos for the project and as judge for classifying products into different quality grades. These standards will be used by Czech and Flemish producers in the vegetable trade and in educating of growers.

QUID Thematic Network

In the years 2002-2004, the Authority was involved in the international project under the 5th Framework Programme funded by the European Commission. The project involved an inter-laboratory validation of the quantitative declaration of ingredients (QUID - quantitative ingredients declaration) for selected types of food. The aim of the project was to unify the procedures used in the various laboratories in Member and Candidate States which were involved in the project, to define these procedures and identify their limitations. The project involved 26 participants from nine EU countries and five of EU candidate countries.

Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

In 2004, selected CAFIA staff received training in the enforcement of intellectual property rights as part of the project in the PHARE programme. The expert guarantor of the project was the Industrial Property Office and CAFIA participated in the project as one of the partners. This project was followed by the Transition Facility Programme which was also implemented by the Industrial Property Office in 2006 - 2007 under title of "Supporting Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights". CAFIA also participated in the preparation and implementation of this project. The project included making of video presentations representing each public authority that participated in the project. The training part of the project then provided training on intellectual property issues for 30 experts from CAFIA.

Strengthening Food Safety Policy

Between 2003 and 2005, an extensive inspection programme was implemented as a part of the PHARE 2002 project "Strengthening Food Safety Policy". The project, the twinning partner of which was the Greek Agricultural Research Institute NAGREF, had four main sections. In the first, twinning, part of the project the workshops were focused on different target groups from the CAFIA staff: top management, middle and lower management, methodologists, inspectors and laboratory staff. 

The second part of the project was the introduction and certification of the quality management system according to ISO 9001:2000. This quality management system was implemented in CAFIA in co-operation with the Greek company Q-PLAN SA and the Czech company CS-Project s.r.o. The system was certified in August 2005 by the BVQI Czech Republic s.r.o. certification company.

The third component of the project was to build a joint information system for state administration bodies which are involved in the control of foodstuffs in the Czech Republic. In this way a joint information system was established for the State Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority, the State Veterinary Administration, State Phytosanitary Administration, Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture, Public Health Service of the Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Customs. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic will become a member of this joint system from 2006. The common information system was developed in collaboration with the Luxembourg company INTRASOFT International S.A.  and the Czech company Brain Systems s.r.o. The system aims to streamline the exchange of information and to further enhance the co-operation between supervisory authorities. 

The fourth and last component of the project, was purchase of laboratory equipment for the CAFIA laboratory. This device is used to perform analyses to demonstrate the presence of anabolic steroids in food supplements, especially in food supplements designed for sportspeople.

EU support

Between 1998 and 2001, our organisation implemented the PHARE 1998 project "Support CAFIA", in collaboration with the Irish supervisory authority - the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). This project included a number of professional staff training events and telecommunications, computer and laboratory equipment was purchased for our organisation.

 
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