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News Release from: The Forum of Private Business
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 December 2006
Concern over check charges for food
claims
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has written to the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs to express concern over plans to charge for checks on claims made by food businesses.
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has written to the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs (DG Sanco) to express concern over plans to charge for checks on claims made by food businesses A consultation is currently taking place on if, and how, the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) should charge for the service
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Sep 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Bob Salmon is the Food Adviser to the FPB and says that the consultation paper is confusing.
"The paper shows little understanding of small and medium-sized businesses, their (in)ability to pay for the costs of evaluations or the importance of the role they play in the industry." The proposals would see charges placed on checks made on novel foods or those that claim to have health benefits.
Small and medium-sized businesses make up the vast majority of businesses in the food sector; however, there will be many who cannot afford the costs of evaluation.
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Mr Salmon says that will act as barrier to innovation in the market.
"The extra cost burden will discourage many smaller firms that have potentially innovative new products.
Health and nutrition advice will also be curtailed.
This will lead to reduced competition, which will have an adverse affect on the choice of the consumer." The consultation document sets out an argument in favour of levying the charges, namely that those who undergo the evaluations derive an economic benefit from them.
However, the FPB believes that is misguided and that there is no guarantee of achieving an economic benefit.
The certification would only be a guarantee that the food can be produced and marketed legally.
The cost of the evaluation may also present too high a risk to take when deciding whether to manufacture a certain product whose success is not certain.
Mr Salmon says that there should be a rethink on charging.
"The consultation asks if all those businesses applying should be charged, or just those who derive a profit, or if some other yardstick should be used.
The FPB believes that a business's ability to pay should be a factor that could be used as the yardstick." The FPB is also asking why the activities, for which financing is being sought, are even necessary.
Mr Salmon explained that many firms would have already pursued a costly line of preparation to meet regulations.
"It is unreasonable for businesses to be expected to pay the administrative cost of obtaining authorisations, when they will already have incurred substantial product development costs in order to comply with the regulations' requirements.
Those that choose to make authorisations necessary should pay for them - that is, the European Commission." The FPB also believes that paying for the services of EFSA will not guarantee that a product is approved by DG Sanco.
EFSA is charged with risk assessment only and delivers an opinion to DG Sanco, which then makes the decisions on whether a risk is acceptable or not.
So, paying for the EFSA risk assessment is no guarantee that the product or claim will be approved.
The FPB believes there could be an alternative, but that it would be costly.
A system of dispensations for smaller firms, similar to those used with reference to the European Medicines Agency, could be used.
Indeed, the consultation document is unclear as to whether these are being proposed, and the FPB is pushing for clarification of this.
Any dispensations would necessitate further bureaucracy inside EFSA and could, therefore, potentially raise the residual cost burden for all firms, as well as for the public purse.
To avoid a burden on smaller businesses or an alternative that creates further red tape, the FPB wants the proposal to enable EFSA to charge fees to be abandoned immediately.
Mr Salmon raised the issue with representatives from the Food Standards Authority (FSA) on Monday (4 December 2006), who agreed to look into the issue and report back in the coming months.
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