Food Safety/Risk Management/Data collection
Access details Data collection

Data collection

 

Reliable and accurate information, about food consumption, and about the types and levels of contaminants in food, is essential for correct risk assessment and management.

In the European framework, in accordance with Regulation 178/2002, the organism responsible for collecting this data is the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and all Member States must adopt the necessary measures for collecting national data and sending them to the EFSA. Based on this information, the EFSA conducts their risk assessments and these assessments are, in turn, used by the European Commission as the basis for the establishment of the EU regulatory policies, of great importance both for consumer safety and for the agrofood sector.

So that all the information is comparable and can be treated together, it must be collected in a harmonised manner. Therefore, the EFSA has drawn up data collection systems and procedures that must be observed by all Member States.  

It is of the utmost importance for Spain that the national data is included with the European data. In this way, it may be considered in the above-mentioned food risk assessment and management processes.