Rules to monitor food quality and punish food fraud in Spain

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The law sets the basic rules to defend food quality in Spain, including a penalty system, and fulfills the European Union requirement that member states establish effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions against food fraud.
2. It applies to all food marketed in Spain, processed or not, in facilities such as factories, packing plants, wholesale warehouses, broker offices and transport between them. It excludes hygiene and food safety matters, genetically modified organisms, sales to the final consumer, foreign trade and primary production.
3. Quality control is carried out through official controls by the authorities, self-monitoring by operators, and self-monitoring by sector associations or cooperatives. Operators must have a self-monitoring system with documented procedures, a sampling and analysis plan, and traceability, and must keep that information for at least six months.
4. Inspectors, public officials with the status of agents of the authority, can request documents, take samples and temporarily seize noncompliant goods. Companies must allow inspections and provide information and samples, and precautionary measures must be confirmed, modified or lifted within fifteen days at most.
5. Violations are classified as minor, serious or very serious. Minor ones are punished with a warning or a fine of up to €4,000; serious ones with fines from €4,001 to €150,000; and very serious ones from €150,001 to €3,000,000. The fine can never be lower than the illegal profit obtained.
6. It creates the Food Quality Coordination Board (Mesa de Coordinación de la Calidad Alimentaria), attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, to coordinate official controls between the state and the autonomous communities, with common criteria, annual reports and the RICAL computer system.

Who it affects

• Food companies: factories, packers, wholesale warehouses, importers and brokers: They must have self-monitoring and traceability systems, allow inspections, and can be fined up to €3,000,000.
• Inspection and certification bodies: They must be accredited by the Spanish national accreditation body (ENAC) and file a responsible declaration valid nationwide.
• State and regional public administrations: They must coordinate official controls through the Coordination Board and share information through RICAL and the RIICA network.
• Inspectors and state security forces: They carry out inspections, draw up reports with probative value, and can take precautionary measures such as seizing goods.

Words worth knowing

Trazabilidad (traceability)

The ability to follow a food product through every stage: where it comes from, where it has been and where it goes.

Autocontrol (self-monitoring)

A system the company itself sets up to check that its processes meet quality rules.

Medidas cautelares (precautionary measures)

Temporary measures, such as seizing goods, taken while a possible violation is being investigated.

Declaración responsable (responsible declaration)

A document by which an entity declares to the administration that it meets the requirements needed to start its activity.

Multas coercitivas (coercive fines)

Fines repeated over time to force someone to comply with an obligation, separate from the penalty for the violation.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries