CAFIA Control Activities
01/22/2015
- Inspection will only be carried out in the case of a direct request or if apparent defects are found in the foodstuffs for sale.
- CAFIA may use its powers to check all foodstuffs and food products anywhere in the Czech Republic, regardless of the citizenship of the seller.
- With regard to the freedoms arising from the Founding Treaty of the EU (esp. free movement of services), citizens of other EU member states have the same possibilities for trading in the Czech republic as Czech citizens. We must ask to see a proof of identity and also a trading licence according to the laws in the traders home state (e.g. the equivalent of our trading licence). However, such a licence may not exist for certain subjects (especially small growers offering their excess production for sale).
- If the seller states that they are selling foodstuffs belonging to another person or legal entity, they inspector will demand that the seller presents the other person´s or entity´s trading licence, or that the seller provides the owner´s name and contact address.
- If the seller does not present (at least) a proof of identity (for EU citizens a passport or national identity document), the inspector will ask the Police of the Czech Republic, or the municipal police, as they are the only organs with the power to insist that people prove their identity. Officers of the municipal police may also decide whether the seller is in compliance with the conditions for selling, which the given municipality has established in its own municipal regulations.
- In case of citizens of other EU member states the inspections are focussed on the so-called harmonised spheres, i.e. which are the subjects of EU legal regulations (regulations, decisions, directives).
- On the basis of the inspection, the inspector writes an inspection protocol with annexes. This protocol will be sent to the Control, Laboratory and Certification Department of the CAFIA Headquarters, where a decision will be made on whether the information will be sent to the control body in the country of which the inspected person is a citizen.
- The inspected person may not speak Czech, or pretend not to understand it. If possible, the inspection will not only be recorded in writing, but also recorded in an audio or visual form.