Czechia

The Ministry of Agriculture (MZE) deals with agricultural policy and food safety in the Czech Republic. It is responsible for foods of animal and plant origin as well as for state food inspections.

The portfolio of MZE also includes food (including food used in catering services) and feed, animal welfare and health, veterinary medicinal products, plant protection products and their residues, contaminants, drinking water, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), novel foods, food additives, enzymes and aromas, food supplements and food labelling, fortification of food, and nutrition and health claims.

MZE is also responsible for all agricultural commodities issues and organic farming.

Risk communication is another main area of MZE’s remit. The Food Safety Information Centre was set up to provide information, accessible to the general public, on all aspects of food safety (“from farm to fork”).

Competent authorities subordinate to MZE (SZPI, SVS, UKZUZ) play a main role in putting MZE's policies into effect and implementing official controls.

Scientific advice is provided to MZE by scientific committees:

• Veterinary Scientific Committee
• Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition
• Scientific Committee on GMO Food and Feed
• Phytosanitary and Environmental Scientific Committee.

Some National Reference Laboratories pursuant to Regulation (EU) No. 2017/625 are attached organisations which are within the portfolio of MZE.

Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (SZPI) is a state authority responsible for supervising the safety, quality and labelling of foodstuffs. Within its remit, SZPI inspects foodstuffs, raw materials for their production as well as agricultural and tobacco products. The above-mentioned responsibilities apply to production, storage, transport, and sale (including import).

Risk communication is another task of SZPI, which informs consumers about poor-quality, adulterated or unsafe food identified during the official inspections.

SZPI is also the national contact point for RASFF.

Five National Reference Laboratories pursuant to Regulation (EU) No. 2017/625 are attached to SZPI.

The purpose of the State Veterinary Administration (SVS) is primarily the protection of consumers from products of animal origin likely to be harmful to human health, monitoring the animal health situation and maintaining it in a favourable manner, veterinary protection the state territory of the Czech Republic, animal welfare and animal protection.

Risk communication is also a task of SVS.

Another important task of SVS is to ensure the veterinary laboratory diagnostics which is carried out by three state veterinary institutes (SVU) in Jihlava, Olomouc and Prague.

33 National Reference Laboratories pursuant to Regulation (EC) No. 2017/625 are attached to these state veterinary institutes.

Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (UKZUZ) performs administrative tasks and carries out other administrative activities, expert and testing tasks, and control and monitoring activities in accordance with special acts in the areas of plant variety testing, feed-stuffs, agrochemical testing of soils, soils and plant nutrition, seeds and seedlings of the grown plants, perennial plants (viniculture and hops), protection against harmful organisms, and plant protection.

Nine National Reference Laboratories pursuant to Regulation (EU) No. 2017/625 are attached to UKZUZ.

The Ministry of Health (MZ) deals with public health protection and food safety in the Czech Republic. The portfolio of MZ includes food contact materials, contaminants, mineral water and plant protection products and their residues. MZ is also responsible for food for special medical purposes, infant formula and follow-on formula, processed cereal-based food, baby food, total diet replacement for weight control, and microbiological criteria.

MZ is the national competent authority for the surveillance of communicable diseases, including food and water borne diseases, and specifies requirements for irradiated foods (including dose limits).

MZ (together with MZE) shares the responsibility for establishing limits for residues of veterinary medicines in foodstuffs.

The inspection competency of MZ is restricted to food contact materials, food hygiene and, more particularly, the catering trade. The relevant competent authorities are the public health authorities (OOVZ).

Some National Reference Laboratories are attached to MZ.

The main activities of National Institute of Public Health (SZU) comprise science and research, reference and methodological advice, providing expert opinions on the health safety of various products (including food supplements and items of daily use), systematic monitoring of the environmental impact on population health in the Czech Republic, and promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including nutrition.

Human health risk assessments are provided by SZU – food and food contact materials.

SZU provides MZ with a scientific background, namely expert opinions, scientific advice and assessments concerning human health risks.