Best practice Cases of the 4th Quality Conference for Public Administration in the EU

Core process of the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC)

Country:	Belgium
Organisation:	Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC)
www homepage:	www.favv.be
Contact person:	Tom Vanoverschelde
Address:	Simon Bolivarlaan 30 - 21ste verdieping
E-mail:	tom.vanoverschelde@favv.be
Phone:	+32 2 208 48 22
Fax:	+32 2 208 334 4
Level:	Federal
Sector:	Health sector

Short description of the case:

The main objective of the Belgian Federal Food Agency is to ensure a safe food chain. To achieve this goal, the organisation has identified its core process, which is a repetitive strategic guideline for the conduct of controls, inspections and audits in all parts of the food chain. The core process is based on a scientific risk analysis. To be able to do this, information from the sector-representatives and the Rapert Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF) are used, as well as scientific insights provided by the Agency’s Scientific Committee. The basis for the control program is risk analysis. This programme is then translated into a control plan. This control plan sets out the objectives, spread by region and by month. The plan, conceived by the central administration, is being executed by the 11 Provincial Control Units of the Control Department. The results of the conducted controls are being reported and monitored continually, which ensures that timely preventive and corrective actions can be taken if incidents in the food chain occur. The control results are being used for the next risk analysis.

Main feature of the case:

- Committed leadership in translating vision into action

- Strategic planning for achieving the targets set

Key words:

core process, food chain, benchmarking, risk analysis, control plan

Further information:

Long case description (PDF-form)
Case presentation (PDF-form)