Officially launched during a January 26 meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council, the European Commission has established a task force to strengthen food safety controls for food imports.

The task force is aligned with new measures to increase and strengthen controls for animal, plant, and food imports entering the EU, which were announced at a December Implementation Dialogue. These measures are intended to improve food safety for consumers and level competition for European agri-food producers, and include a 50 percent increase in the number of audits carried out on non-EU countries over the next two years, a 33 percent increase in audits of European Border Control Posts, closer monitoring of non-compliant commodities and countries, and other efforts.

Focusing specifically on food and feed safety, pesticide residues, and coordinated EU monitoring actions on specific imported products, the task force will:

• Harmonize import controls across the EU
• Develop recommendations for joint actions between the Commission and Member States
• Identify where additional administrative or regulatory measures are needed to strengthen controls.