European policy for organization and control of the food safety in Bulgaria

The Food Safety is a convergent part of the EU Policy for customers' health protection. It is connected with one of the fundamental establishment principles for found and running of the EU, i.e. the foundation of common European market of good, including the food products, wherein they run and transfer freely, without restrictions. It has forced being laid down universal and common norms and standards regulating the production and commerce with foods for the sake to mitigate the hazard from food intoxications and hazards for the health of million number of consumers. Bulgaria, as a member of EU is obliged to implement the European norms and standards in this realm and to guarantee that on the Common European Market there will not be bidden Bulgarian foods, endangering the health of the customers. This demands the implementation of effective preventive and operative control over the whole chain stretched from the input production up to final products. The purpose of the paper is to study the existing system for control and food safety in Bulgaria and system prepositions for effective and duly measures and guarantee for safety of the supplied to the market foods. By practical point of view, the control scope pertaining to the food safety is very wide and complex. Through the whole path of the product to the final consumer, it is subject of control made by different organizations and institutions. The primary control ­ self-control is conducted by the food producers, while the final one is undertaken by big commercial chains, which keep the immediate interaction with final consumers. The official control is pretty wide and is implemented not only on the product but on all operators through the whole food chain, comprising producers, processors, distributors, retail sale. In this control are involved different organizations, expressing and soliciting the health and interests of particular social groups. In Bulgaria, the official control is in charge of mainly two entities. The coordination of the actions is mediated and facilitated by set up by the law National Council for Food Safety and belonging within it, the Council for Control Coordination. This system of control doesn't predispose the effective measures of control due to: presence of competition between offices for hygiene control and those for veterinary-medical control; weak inter-entity coordination; duplication of some of the control responsibilities and emerging of prepositions for rendering controversial prescription by offices of hygiene and those of veterinary-medical control, which inhibit the food operators. Therefore, for the sake of improving the official control for the food safety are developed modes for creation of integrated structure ­ agency and office with reinforced control functions, which is the most widespread practice in other member countries within EU. For the establishment of this new structure should be considered not corporate but conversely social interests. This will lead to improving the organization and coordination between control institutions and adopting integrated approach for fulfillment of legislation requirements of all responsible offices related to food safety from the fork to the table.