New EU food and animal feed regulations which place full responsibility for food safety on the food and animal feed producers have come into force.
The EU legislation which tightens and harmonises EU food safety measures was signed into law by Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan on January 1st.
It applies at every point in the food chain in line with the EU's "farm to fork" approach to food safety.
A key aspect of the legislation is that all food and feed operators, from farmers and processors to retailers and caterers, will have primary responsibility for ensuring that food put on the EU market meets the required safety standard.
The regulations, which are known as the Hygiene Package, require all farmers, processors and animal feed producers to register with the Department of Agriculture and Food.
Ms Coughlan said the recasting of existing EU legislation also simplified the range of complicated and often overlapping legislation which had evolved in this area over the past 30 years.
The underlying philosophy was that food producers should bear full responsibility for the safety of their food. "The emphasis is on achieving 'food safety objectives' rather than concentrating, as heretofore, on a detailed description of the measures to be taken to achieve those objectives."
She said food safety was of the highest priority to the agri-food sector, and the new regulations would mean little change for those who were already operating to best practice.
The Minister pointed out that the legislation required primary producers of food to be registered with her department.
She said any person involved in the production, rearing or growing of primary food products, including harvesting, milking and farmed animal production prior to slaughter, not involved in the Single Payment Scheme should apply for registration.
An EU Commission statement said that under the new legislation food operators at each stage in the food chain were responsible for ensuring that EU hygiene rules were respected. Farmers, processors, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and caterers would be affected.
The obligation also lay with feed operators to guarantee the safety of the animal feed it marketed.
"The competent authority in each member state must control the situation through regular inspections and on-the-spot checks.
"All food and feed business operators need to be registered, and some businesses, such as slaughterhouses and cutting plants, need approval before they can operate," it added.
Moreover, certain establishments such as slaughterhouses and cutting plants must also guarantee other rules were complied with such as animal welfare, humane killing procedures and the prevention of cross-contamination.