The European Commission recently published its annual report on official food safety controls carried out in EU Member States throughout 2022. Overall, the Commission concluded that national authorities have the necessary systems in place to monitor EU food safety and carry out enforcement actions, although some shortcomings were noted in certain countries’ control systems.

In 2022, five million official food safety controls were carried out by EU national authorities, and approximately 16.4 million businesses fell within the scope of jurisdiction. A total of 1.2 million noncompliances were reported, resulting in 475,000 administrative penalties and 12,000 legal actions.