NVWA 2021: improving flexibility and supervision

In the year 2021 a lot is asked of the change capacity of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) and its employees. This is the conclusion of Inspector General Maarten Ruys in his foreword to the NVWA's Annual Plan 2021. The corona crisis and the Brexit still bring a lot of uncertainty. The introduction of European regulations in the field of plants and animals will also have a major impact on the work of the NVWA in 2021.

The NVWA has hired about 100 veterinarians in the run-up to the Brexit. However, due to a shortage of veterinarians in the Netherlands and other European countries, it is difficult to attract and retain more veterinarians for inspection work. Also for other specialist tasks it is sometimes difficult to fill vacancies quickly and well. The NVWA is therefore investigating whether it is possible to have more tasks carried out by well-qualified employees who are not veterinarians. The NVWA will also increase its efforts to recruit, train and retain veterinarians and other necessary personnel.

In 2021 the NVWA will continue with the improvements resulting from the so-called rethink that was completed in 2020. In the coming period, the NVWA will work on the basis of a number of established themes (such as professionalization of work and craftsmanship, and improvement of information provision and ICT) to create a future-proof organization. An important precondition for the improvements is a better balance between social expectations and available resources for the NVWA. In this respect, it is important that the NVWA is also clear about the intended performance of the supervision and about the limits that are attached to the deployment of the supervision.

Distribution of capacity

In 2021, as in other years, the NVWA spends most of the available capacity (50%) on food safety monitoring. This does not only involve monitoring foodstuffs sold to consumers, but also, for example, the use of antibiotics, animal feed, the slaughter process and animal by-products. Other public interests include product safety (6% capacity), animal health (8%), nature and environment (10%), tobacco control (2%), plant health (11%), animal welfare (9%) and control of subsidy schemes (4%).

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