The Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), until 2014 known as the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO), is a directorate-general of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

. The DG is responsible for the implementation of European Union laws on food safety and health. It is headed by

European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety The Commissioner for Health and Food Safety is the member of the European Commission. The current post of Commissioner is held by Stella Kyriakidou ( el, Στέλλα Κυριακίδου) from Cyprus, a psychologist and politician of the conse ...

Stella Kyriakides and Director-General Sandra Gallina.

Structure

Directorates

The directorate-general is made up of seven directorates (as of December 2021): * Directorate A: Resource management and better regulation * Directorate B: Health systems, medical products and innovation * Directorate C: Public Health * Directorate D: Food sustainability, international relations * Directorate E: Food and feed safety, innovation * Directorate F: Health and food audits and analysis * Directorate G: Crisis preparedness in food, animals and plants Directorates A, B, D, E and G are based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Directorate C is based in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, and Directorate F in Grange, County Meath, Ireland.

Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is a system for reporting food safety issues within the European Union established by Regulation (EC) 178/2002 of 28 January 2002, which entered into force on 21 February 2002.EU MonitorRegulation 200 ...

is the EC's food safety rapid alert system.

Scientific committees

DG SANTE manages two independent scientific committees: * the

Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety The Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) is one of the independent scientific committees managed by the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission, which provide scientific advice to the commission ...

(SCCS) * the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SHEER) These scientific committees provide the

with the scientific advice on non-food products that it needs when preparing policy and proposals relating to consumer safety, public health and the environment. The committees also draw the commission's attention to the new or emerging problems which may pose an actual or potential threat.

Agencies

DG SANTE is linked to one executive agency, the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), as well as several decentralised

agencies of the European Union The agencies of the European Union (formally: ''Agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom'') are bodies of the European Union and the Euratom established as juridica ...

such as the

European Food Safety Authority The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) that provides independent scientific advice and communicates on existing and emerging risks associated with the food chain. EFSA was established in February 2002, ...

(EFSA), which the

consults for questions concerning the safety of food products, the

Community Plant Variety Office The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) is an agency of the European Union, located in Angers, France. It was established in 1994. Its task is to administer a system of plant variety rights, also known as plant breeders' rights, a form of intel ...

(CPVO), which administers a system of

plant variety rights Plant breeders' rights (PBR), also known as plant variety rights (PVR), are rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant that give the breeder exclusive control over the propagating material (including seed, cuttings, divisions, tissue ...

, and the

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, e ...

(ECDC), which helps the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

combat communicable diseases and other serious health threats.

References

External links