Joining forces

Every year, on King’s Day, the Netherlands is once again confronted with the facts (and with hamburgers and skewers contaminated with Salmonella and Listeria): hygiene is terrible at street markets. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is all over it. This year, the inspectors once again scoured the stalls to inspect food vendors. Why? Not to find an opportunity to hand out lots of fines, which they certainly do. But to protect consumers. 

In recent months, the NVWA has emphatically increased the visibility of and focus on food safety, including in the business sector: approximately 52% of the available capacity is used in the field of food safety. This is stated in the ‘Progress Report no. 1 Food Safety Action Plan’ , which was sent to the House of Representatives by ministers Schouten of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) and Bruins for Medical Care and Sports in April. The second progress report for this Action Plan will follow later this year. 

As of 1 June 2019, the Netherlands will also have a new institute for food safety. RIKILT Wageningen University & Research and the Laboratory for Feed and Food Safety of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) will then form a new institute together: ‘Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR)’. The new institute can provide laboratory support to the NVWA and the central government more effectively and in a more knowledge-intensive manner. (Joining forces is something we see more and more often throughout the entire chain: it is an absolute necessity for a circular economy). 

One of the recommendations from the Progress Report reads: ‘Guarantee that food safety has the highest priority and is not weighed against other values and interests. Ensure that the primary importance of food safety is shared throughout the entire organisation and that all employees are aware of this’.

Why should you also join forces in your company? Not because a recall is difficult, costs money and harms your company image. Not to avoid going to court. But to protect consumers. Who, did you say? Consumers? That is all of us. That is you. 

Judith Witte
[email protected]