• 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

 CAFIA focused its control in 1999 on:

• food safety, mainly with respect to contaminants, pesticide residues, microbial requirements and requirements for additives,
• false labelling of foods (so called "adulterations"),
• imported food, mainly in the cases of well-founded suspicion that they were eliminated from foreign markets due to some drawbacks,
• food for special dietary use,
• other obligations arising from the Food Law as well as other regulations.

Recommendations as well as other documents from the European and other organisations served as an inspiration for the CAFIA numerous control activities. They were, among others Recommendation of the European Commission 1999/26/EC on a co-ordinated programme of the official food control for 1999, Codex Alimentarius papers (CX/PR 99/12 and CX PR 99/13 of January 1999 prepared for the Commission's 31st session on pesticide residues in Haag in April 1999), FLEP Bulletin of July 1998 (Chapter 9, Future Challenges in Food Control), etc.

Food inspections, system approach

CAFIA carries out food inspections within the range of an integrated system, where the individual items are linked with one another in a certain sequence. The first phase includes "suggestions" and these are followed by the so-called "risk analysis", which consists of "risk assessment" - "risk management" - "risk communication". Consumer interests function as feedback for the control in the form of suggestions. Application of the above mentioned scheme in practice lays foundations in order to ensure not only food safety, but also quality, hygiene, correct labelling and other set obligations.

Suggestions

Suggestions represent an initial impulse to an inspection. They can mainly be the following:

• necessity of prevention (the efforts to prevent from drawbacks),
• existence of a legal regulation (set obligations, the observance of which has to be controlled),
• results of scientific research (disclosing new risks that need to be controlled),,
• data analysis in the proper information system (e.g. generalisation of the results of inspections),
• relevant field findings of inspectors,
• information from other bodies of state administration (customs office, hygiene service, police, veterinary authority, trade licence office),
• suggestion from the producers, consumers and profession associations,
• suggestions from mass media (Internet, press, radio, television) and from advertising,
• findings of foreign partner organisations,
• materials of European as well as world institutions (European Commission, Codex Alimentarius) etc.

Risk Assessment

Potential risk is assessed, considered and evaluated on the basis of data analyses, the latest scientific knowledge and available related information, expert expertise, advice and statements, existing experience, etc.

The main concern is paid to a risk of

• analyte (especially risk related to safety but also to quality, labelling, etc.),
• commodity (e.g. risk in connection with novel food, perishable food or food according to the specification - e.g. baby food),
• business persons inspected (e.g. as to the volume of production, "size" of the producer, previous drawbacks found, etc.),
• geographic origins of the particular foodstuffs, etc.

Risk Management

Risk management is carried out through legal regulations (defined and set requirements) and surveillance over their compliance. Important facts for the inspection to be efficient are mainly its organisation and objectives.

As to objectives, inspections are performed as

• target, performed mainly on the basis of a relevant suggestion, focusing on the area where some drawbacks are expected, e.g. on problematic businessmen and foodstuffs, and concrete analyses are recommended. A direct objective is to remedy the matter as soon as possible,
• preventive (with a long time horizon). Its direct objective is rather to monitor, find out about the present condition, and try to prevent from drawbacks (e.g. through inspections in the production, planned control of microbial requirements, etc.).

Risk Communication

Risk communication includes interaction between CAFIA and the general public. This means, first of all, that results of inspections should be regularly presented in various mass media, including Internet. For more details see Chapter 14, Information for the General Public.