Flexibility:

objectives, overview,
principles, measures,
conclusions
Better Training for Safer Food
FOOD HYGIENE AND FLEXIBILITY

Concept:
To protect food diversity and to serve consumers needs, EU legislation provide ample possibilities to adapt the technical
requirements of the Food Hygiene
In general, flexibility provisions for:

implementation of procedures based on HACCP;

traditional food products;
implementation of Regulation 2073/2005;
Official Control;

FLEXIBILITY= (flexible) interpretation and implementation of

certain hygiene provisions in specified areas and topics
regarding special circumstances and structure of FBO
WHY FLEXIBILITY ?
to continue to produce traditional foods;
to enable the continued use of traditional methods;
to reduce administrative burdens for certain businesses;

Flexibility should not compromise food hygiene

objectives

PRINCIPLES FOR IMPLEMENTING FLEXIBILITY

PROVISIONS:

SUBSIDIARITY - based on the principle of subsidiarity, Member States

are best placed to find solutions to local situations
TRANSPARENCY - based on the transparency principle, each draft of
such national measures must be notified to the Commission and to the
other Member States

Food will be in free circulation throughout the

Community: the procedure allowing Member
States to exercise flexibility should be fully
transparent

Flexibility shall have the aim of enabling the

continued use of traditional methods, at any of the
stages of production, processing or distribution of food.
If foods are traditionally produced in Member States and
there is a need to adapt other requirements than those
for traditional products, the EU legislation allows to
Member States to adopt national measures in order to
adapt requirements in Hygiene Regulations

LEGAL BASES:

1.To Exclude some activities from the scope of the hygiene

regulations(covered in the next presentation
2.To grant adaptations of certain requirements laid down in Annexes
of the Hygiene Regs
3.To grant derogations/exemptions from certain requirements laid
down in Annexes of the FHP

Exclusions
from the
scope

Flexibility

Adaptations
of certain
requirements
in Annexes
Derogations/
exemptions

FLEXIBILITY

MAIN PRINCIPLES

All national measures must be notified to the Commission

and to the other Member States

The notification shall be done at the stage of the draft in

order to inform and give the possibility to comment
Notification procedures provide a certain level of
"harmonisation of rules at EU level
Failure to fulfil the notification obligation renders such
technical regulations inapplicable and unenforceable
against individuals

ROADMAP FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FLEXIBILITY MEASURES

Thank you!