Brussels, Belgium
May 6, 2013

The agri-food industry is the second largest economic sector in the EU, and in order to reinforce its safety and effectiveness, the European Commission has today adopted a package of measures to strengthen the enforcement of health and safety standards.

Food safety is essential to ensure consumers' confidence and sustainability of food production.
The package responds to the call for better simplification of legislation and smarter regulation thus reducing administrative burden for operators and simplifying the regulatory environment. It will cut down from almost 70 pieces of legislation at the moment to 5 pieces.

Special consideration is given to the impact of this legislation on SMEs and micro enterprises which are exempted from the most costly and burdensome elements in the legislation.

Please also see MEMO/13/398 .

Website: http://europa.eu

Published: May 6, 2013