• 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

2.4. Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed

The current legal base of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The objective of the rapid alert system is to provide supervisory bodies and co-operating institutions with information about direct or indirect risk for human health, originating in food or feed, in the framework of ensuring their safety by means of an effective tool.

Individual participants of the system are the following public administration bodies according to Article 14 of Act No. 110/1997 Coll., on foodstuffs and tobacco products, as subsequently amended:

• State Veterinary Administration
• Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority
• Public Health Protection Authorities
• Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture
• General Staff of the Ministry of Defence
• Directorate General of Prisons Service of the Ministry of Justice
• Ministry of the Interior

The co-operating institutions and members of the system are:

• General Customs Directorate
• State Office for Nuclear Safety

The coordination of the RASFF work is ensured by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The CAFIA has two roles in the system, on one hand it works as a body supervising the adherence to obligations laid down by the Act on foodstuffs, and on the other hand it is the National Contact Point (NCP) for the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in the Czech Republic according to Article 15 par. 4 of that Act.

Since the beginning of 2004 the NCP continued with intensive preparations to become a part of the European RASFF, initiated already in 2002; a trial run of the system was launched in 2003.

Within the preparation of the Czech Republic for accession to the EU and related preparation to become a part of the European RASFF, several meetings were organised. The outcome of these meetings was a common document “Harmonised procedure of risk assessment by RASFF participants”. The working group for RASFF was involved in the preparation of proposal for “Government Regulation on the rapid alert system on the emergence of risk for human health posed by food and feed” and of proposal for “RASFF Manual in the Czech Republic”.

By the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and thanks to thorough preparation in previous years, the RASFF in the Czech Republic became fully connected to the European system run by the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of the European Commission. As of this date all RASFF participants in the CR have the right to access the central CIRCA database for notifications.

In 2004, the Czech Republic received through the NCP 18 notifications, 13 of which fell within the CAFIA´s scope of competence. The Czech Republic forwarded 17 notifications concerning the inspection of the market; 16 notifications were an outcome of CAFIA work. As regards the import controls of food and raw materials from third countries, the NCP notified a total of 27 cases where consignments were rejected at the borders and were not released into free circulation.