L?igiene dei prodotti alimentari nella disciplina europea

Food Product Hygiene within European Discipline - As regards the subject of food product hygiene European Community legislation disciplines hygiene food requirements by means of three regulations passed in 2004, the first Regulation n.852/2004 regards general information, the second n. 853/2004 deals with food of an animal origin, the third n. 854/2004 concerns the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin destined for human consumption. Our attention is focused on the first regulation, due to the fact that, by its application to food products of a vegetable origin, it especially affects Egypt as regards fruit and vegetable exportation to Europe. Egypt is a country which is taken into consideration so as to face the matter of the commercialisation of farm produce towards Europe in view of the establishment of a free trade area within the Mediterranean. The field of application of regulation n. 852/2004 includes primary production as of its definition given in Art. 3 of Regulation n. 178/2002. In Enclosure I it is specified that within the primary production environment, primary products may be transported, stored and handled on the condition that these procedures do not alter their aspects. At this point, the assessment arises as regards the ascribability of certain operations to the three hypotheses and according to the abovementioned condition. Both during primary production phases and throughout subsequent activities, in order to apply community legislation, it is sufficient to carry out one of the phases of the foreseen activities in order to be considered pursuant to Art. 3, n. 2, Regulation n. 178/02. Within the food business the control functions are carried out by the food sector operator. Hygiene rules must be both respected and applied to the entire food chain but also in a different way as regards the primary activities with respects to those carried out subsequently. As regards Third-Party countries, it is accepted that products may be obtained by means of equivalent hygienic rules and however dispensations from community standards are not permitted. As follows you will find a summary of the normative references on the subject of hygiene. Key words: hygiene European Community legislation, primary production, Third- Party countries.