What are the standards to be met by slaughterhouses, food processing plants and laboratories?
EU food safety and veterinary/phytosanitary legislation sets high standards. Therefore most new Member States need to make major efforts in organising effective lines of responsibility for food safety, in upgrading plants, getting analytical and laboratory capacity up and running and training personnel for inspection services, laboratory staff etc. In food factories, implementation of EU rules may mean bigger investments in rebuilding/refurbishing part of the factory. There has been a rationalisation process going on. Those establishments which do not meet the EU rules and which are not subject to transitional arrangements will be closed. To implement effective pesticide residue monitoring for example, the new Member States need to set up a sampling programme (covering both domestic production and imported food), an analytical programme, have the necessary laboratory infrastructure and equipment and have properly qualified staff. They also must put in place effective procedures for ide
