24.08.

2015

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Food hygiene - BfR

Food hygiene

DEP ARTM ENT 4

Food hygiene is an important prerequisite to health. BfR examines,

more particularly, pathogens in foods which can involve health risks in
the event of poor hygiene, but also germs which can spoil foods.
Food hygiene is primarily the responsibility of companies processing,
producing, treating or marketing foods. Clean working spaces and
tools, bodily hygiene of all employees and the selection of proper raw
materials for the processing of the different products are particularly

Biological Safety

BFR-COM M ITTEES

Hygiene
Committee for Biological Hazards

important.
Prevent foodborne infections through hygiene
Hygiene encompasses all measures which prevent the perishing of food, help to avoid the
transmission of infectious diseases or curb the contamination of consumers by residues and
contaminants. Cleaning, disinfection, and sterilisation serve, for instance, for the reduction of
contamination by microorganisms.
Since many foods are an ideal substrate for microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and
parasites they are subject to particularly stringent demands in terms of hygiene.
What does BfR do?
BfR conducts health assessments for different pathogen/food combinations. This is based on the
risk assessment of bacteria, viruses and parasites in foods in accordance with the respective
international scientific state of knowledge. A focus of BfR is on microorganisms which are
transmissible from animals via foods to humans, the so-called zoonoses.
The assessment of the health risk is a dynamic process. For that reason BfR permanently
adjusts its assessments to the most recent scientific findings.
Legal bases
Since 1 January 2006 direct Community law has applied in Germany. Three EU Regulations on
food hygiene replaced the previous national Ordinance:
EC Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004

(110.7 KB)

EC Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004

(271.9 KB)

EC Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004

(261.3 KB)

In addition the following applies:

EC Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2005

(450.2 KB) on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs.

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OPINION (1 document)
COMMUNICATION (1 document)
OTHER (6 documents)
PRESS INFORMATION (3 documents)

2015 Bundesinstitut fr Risikobew ertung (BfR)

Masthead

http://www.bfr.bund.de/en/food_hygiene-54339.html

Data Protection Declaration

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