The Heads of Food Safety Agencies (HoA) represents governmental bodies in Europe responsible for food safety risk management. In some countries more than one organisation can be responsible for the different aspects of the safety in the food chain. While in other countries the central competent authority for food safety may be responsible for related safety domains as well, such as plant health or product safety.
As a competent authority every national Agency aims to ensure safety throughout the food chain by regular control, inspection, sampling and analysis. In particular, they ensure implementation and enforcement of EU legislation as well as international and national rules by the feed and food business operators in their countries. The HoA promotes collaboration between competent authorities of participating countries in order to verify compliance with food law legislation, exchange views and experiences which will be beneficial for the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness and improve harmonisation of the enforcement within Europe.
The HoA meets biannually, usually in the country that holds the Presidency of the European Council. These plenary meetings aim at encouraging mutual cooperation and exchanging experiences and views on good risk management practices within. The HoA initiate Working Groups to develop and approve of “tools” and “best practices” which benefits the collaboration between the agencies and their outcome.
Members of the Heads of Food Safety Agencies are listed here.