Products of animal origin

Draft Commission Delegated Regulation amending Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on specific hygiene requirements for food of animal origin. Language(s): English. Number of pages: 9 +14 pages

The revision aims at addressing a number of requests from EU countries and stakeholders, while maintaining a high level of food safety.

As regards hygiene rules on meat, the amendments introduce certain targeted flexibility, hence facilitating trade or alignments with the Regulations related to meat inspection, applicable since December 2019 and notified earlier to the World Trade Organisation.

As regards bivalve molluscs, the amendment removes pectenotoxins from the list of marine biotoxins to be analysed in live bivalve molluscs based on a scientific opinion; establishes a specific model of the registration document that must accompany movements of live bivalve molluscs after harvesting and until their placing on the market and aligns the rules for echinoderms harvested outside classified production areas fixed in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/624 to the limitations in derogation established by the Parliament and the Council in Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

As regards fishery products, the amendments fix specific hygiene requirements for reefer vessels as regards transport temperature and cold store maintenance, and the obligation on board vessels that containers used for storing and or freezing fishery products be not used for other purposes.