Procedural difficulties for non-profit organisations regarding the traceability of food

12.4.2005

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1494/05
by Holger Krahmer (ALDE)
to the Commission

1. Regulation (EC) No 178/2002[1] stipulates that, with effect from 1 January 2005, the food chain must be monitored in full from producer to final consumer. Under this regulation, even non-profit organisations, such as the German food bank initiative ‘die Tafeln e.V.’, are considered to be food business operators and not final consumers. The Commission reaffirmed this in its guidelines of 20 December 2004 on the implementation of a series of proposals under Regulation (EC) No 178/2002.

2. According to a report in the Bonn newspaper the General-Anzeiger on 16 February 2005, the regulation has created a problem for the Bonn branch of the ‘die Tafeln’ organisation. The management of a leading German supermarket chain has announced that it cannot at present ensure the traceability of the food it supplies to the organisation. As the company is the main supplier to the Bonn branch of ‘die Tafeln’, this means a 90 % drop in deliveries of fruit, vegetables and dairy products.

3. What can be done to ensure that the charitable work of ‘die Tafeln e.V.’ can continue under Regulation (EC) No 178/2002? Is it the case that the arrangements for transposing the regulation are set out in the regulation itself and the Commission has to take a decision on the matter, or are the rules on traceability drawn up by the Member States meaning that they come under the responsibility of the German authorities?

• [1] OJ L 31, 1.2.2002, p. 1.

OJ C 291, 13/11/2008