Legal regulations for safe food
Today, the safety of our food is largely determined by European Union legislation. The legally binding regulations of the European Union are directly applicable in the EU Member States. European law is supplemented in some areas by national law, which also lays down provisions on the severity of penalties for violations of European law, this is referred to as the duty to criminalise. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) is a joint body of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations. As part of its work, the Codex Alimentarius Commission sets international food standards that are not legally binding. However, these international standards are generally taken into account in trade.
EU legislation on environmental contaminants in food
Council Regulation (EEC) No 315/93 of 8 February 1993 laying down Community procedures for contaminants in food, the Contaminants Regulation, which entered into force on 1 March 1993, forms the legal basis for the establishment of EU-wide maximum levels for contaminants in food.
A contaminant is any substance not intentionally added to food which is present in such food as a result of environmental contamination (an environmental contaminant) or as a result of the production, manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food. The term contaminant does not cover insect fragments, animal hair and other extraneous matter.
A basic requirement of consumer health protection is to minimise contaminants in food as far as possible. For instance, the EU Contaminants Regulation requires Member States to prevent the placing on the market of food containing a contaminant in an amount that is unacceptable from the public health viewpoint and in particular at a toxicological level. In addition, Member States are required to reduce contaminants to the lowest levels achievable by following good working practices at all stages of production and processing. Furthermore, in the interest of public health protection, the Regulation grants authority to the European Commission to establish EU wide maximum tolerances for contaminants in food, which in the EU are commonly referred to as maximum levels. These maximum levels are introduced through a non-exhaustive open Community list which can, for example, also contain different maximum levels for the same contaminant in different foodstuffs.
These are determined by, among other things, the usual consumption levels and the concentrations of contaminants in a food. The establishment of maximum levels applicable throughout the EU creates legally binding rules on the levels of contaminants in foodstuffs that are permissible from a public health viewpoint. Following several amendments to Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006, on 25 April 2023 Regulation (EU) 2023/915 entered into force:
The toxicological assessment of contaminants by the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA CONTAM Panel), in particular, establishes the framework within which such values are set for consumer health protection.
National legislation on environmental contaminants in food
The overriding framework law in the field of national food safety is the Food and Feed Code (Lebensmittel- und Futtermittelgesetzbuch – LFGB), which entered into force on 7 September 2005 and incorporates large parts of the former Foodstuffs and Commodities Act (Lebensmittelgesetzes und Bedarfsgegenständegesetzes – LMBG). The lead ministry responsible for this law is the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity.
Under section 13 (5) of the Food and Feed Code, the Federal Environment Ministry has lead responsibility for the prevention of risks to consumers arising from foodstuffs which were exposed to air, soil or water contaminants (known as environmental contaminants). The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity holds lead responsibility for all other aspects of food safety. In Germany, food inspection is the responsibility of the federal states.
In March 2010, the ordinance on limiting the presence of environmental contaminants in foodstuffs, last amended in July 2020, entered into force. The Contaminants Ordinance is a joint Ministerial Ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity and the Federal Environment Ministry. It bundles national regulations that go beyond EU legislation to limit the presence of contaminants in foodstuffs. These include maximum levels for six non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (indicator PCBs) in foods such as meat and meat products of horses, goats and rabbits, feathered and furred game, and wild boar, which go beyond EU law and have been in force in Germany since 1988. In addition, the Ordinance regulates maximum levels applicable in Germany since 1989 for the solvents tetrachloroethene (perchloroethylene), trichloroethene (trichloroethylene) and trichloromethane (chloroform) in all foodstuffs.
The Contaminants Ordinance also penalises violations of the rules directly applicable in Germany under EU Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 (replaced by Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006) on limiting the levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, dioxins, PCBs, perfluoroalkyl substances and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in foodstuffs.