Food Law Framework: Responsibilities for Food

Responsibilities for food rest with both food and feed business operators. The responsibilities of a food business operator are set out in Article 19 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002. Where a food business operator considers or has reason to believe that a food which it has imported, produced, processed, manufactured or distributed is not in compliance with food safety requirements, the food business operator shall immediately initiate procedures to withdraw the food in question from the market where the food has left the immediate control of that initial food business operator and inform the local authority and the Food Standards Agency which are the competent authorities.