Strengthening administrative assistance and cooperation across borders: the Network of Food Fraud Contact Points
In accordance with Articles 34 to 40 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 EU Member States must cooperate with one another to ensure enforcement of food law across borders.
The horsemeat scandal showed that one of the weaknesses of the current system of enforcement along the food chain was the difficulty for Member States’ competent authorities to communicate efficiently with their counterparts in other Member States for the purposes of ensuring enforcement in cases of violations having cross-border impact.
The Commission decided therefore to activate a dedicated network of administrative assistance liaison bodies that would handle specific requests for cross-border cooperation in cases of “food fraud”. The dedicated liaison bodies are referred to as “Food Fraud Contact Points” (FFCP). They act, as all administrative assistance liaison bodies, within the legal framework provided in Title IV of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004. The group of FFCPs is collectively referred to as the “Food Fraud Network” or FFN.
The FFN helps to improve the capability of competent authorities to:
- detect and prevent violations of food chain rules, also across borders and in potential cases of “food fraud”;
- collect the information which is needed (in accordance with applicable national rules) to further refer a case to investigation/ prosecution.
Read the European Commission's Food Fraud Network Activity Report 2015.
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