General aspects of planning
The organisation’s strategic objectives need to be taken into consideration when planning controls. Depending on these objectives, control programmes and procedures and control frequency will be established in order to meet the objectives set.
AECOSAN competent authorities and the public health authorities of the Autonomous Communities have agreed upon five strategic objectives in their respective areas of responsibility for the term of the plan, from 2016 to 2020.
The first strategic objective corresponds to the degree of implementation of PNCOCA in the country as a whole and coordination and cooperation between competent authorities. The remaining four strategic objectives are the development of PNCOCA’s four blocks of official control programmes.
Achievement of these strategic objectives will be evaluated at the end of the term of the Plan, in accordance with the Guide for the practical implementation of the “Guidance document for the design of objectives and indicators for assessing the effectiveness of official control systems as part of the National Plan for the Official Control of the Food Chain 2016-2020”. Despite this, performance will be reviewed annually in order to make corrections, if necessary.
List of strategic objectives, blocks and programmes
In order to meet the strategic objectives, a control programme has been developed for each one, with the exception of the first:
Strategic objective 2.0: To improve the extent and quality of implementation of PNCOCA and cooperation and coordination between Competent Authorities in the official control of food establishments and foods.
Strategic objective 2.1: To improve compliance with food hygiene and animal welfare regulations in food establishments.
Strategic objective 2.2: To improve compliance with legislation in order that food products made available to consumers contain the food safety information established by law.
Strategic objective 2.3: To reduce as far as possible, and in all cases to acceptable levels, the exposure of consumers to biological and chemical risks present in foods.
Strategic objective 2.4: To reduce as far as possible, and in all cases to acceptable levels, the exposure of consumers to emerging risks or especially concerning, difficult to control risks.
Planning of official controls. Risk-based categorisation and prioritisation
The planning and scheduling of official controls is the “P” in the PDCA cycle. In this stage, the resources available for official controls are assessed and control frequencies and priorities are established, based on the risks linked to food establishments and food products for human consumption.
As each of the Autonomous Communities has its own official control system, they are the bodies responsible for planning controls and establishing frequencies, using PNCOCA and the 18 existing control programmes as a basis.
The implementation of each strategic objective requires official controls that follow the guidelines laid out in the 18 control programmes mentioned above. A range of factors should be taken into account when establishing the frequency of controls. In addition to these planned or scheduled controls (inspections and sampling), a range of unscheduled controls will be carried out continuously. Reasons for these include the occurrence of food alerts, food-borne outbreaks, communication from other competent authorities, etc. Unscheduled controls must be taken into account both when planning official controls and in the subsequent study of results of the controls.
The level of fulfilment of official control schedules and the percentage of unscheduled controls carried out are described in detail in the annual report of PNCOCA results for each control programme.
Official controls are independently planned for each of the strategic objectives: as the methods and resources used are different, planning must also be different.