The Luxembourg government has made one of its priorities the introduction of a food control and sanction systems.

In order to improve the enforcement of community regulations in the field of food safety and hygiene and to ensure the effectiveness and quality of control measures in this area, the government has judged a bill introducing a system of control and sanctions for foodstuffs to be a priority.

In general, food legislation aspires to a high level of protection of the health and safety of consumers. For instance, the governing council approved 14 governmental amendments introduced by the Minister of Health at its meeting on 28 April 2017. The purpose of these recommendations is to define the necessary measures to improve the means of action on behalf of the national authorities and to optimise the control, hygiene and quality of foodstuffs in the Grand Duchy.

These measures include the effective reorganisation of existing structures, the establishment of a quality, fraud and food safety commissioner, the creation of a single database, the harmonisation of control procedures, the establishment of a system of control and sanctions, and the transparency of the control results. They also aim to achieve greater efficiency and transparency in food safety for both citizens and consumers and for businesses.

With the same aim to optimise the food control systems in Luxembourg, an audit commissioned by the two ministries preceded the drafting of the amendments. The audit first highlighted the quality of the controls and analyses carried out, the commitment of auditors and bodies, the good level of competence of auditors and analysts, the availability and transparency of such bodies.

However, the audit identified a number of areas for improvement in the current control system and made a number of recommendations, including the pooling of services, the establishment of penal and / or administrative penalties In the event of infringement, or the bringing into conformity of internal law with European law in this field.

These recommendations, reflected in the above measures, will be implemented in close cooperation between the parties concerned to guarantee consumers high levels of food safety and security.