Speaking after Tuesday’s meeting in Brussels, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis said the participants had agreed to improve co-ordination between existing food safety structures.

Exchange of information

“We will consider how to establish a ‘food safety officer’ in each member state to make sure information flows as fast and as efficient as possible,” he said. The existence of a single point of contact in each country for the various monitoring, alert and response systems already in place would “further enhance the efficient and rapid exchange of information”, the conclusions of the meeting read.

European authorities also highlighted the need to communicate about risks with the public in a faster and more co-ordinated way, including through the press and social media.

The discussions followed the scandal in which millions of eggs in northern Europe were found to have been contaminated with the insecticide fipronil last month.

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