Introduction: Legislation regulating food is being amended in order to ensure a high level of protection of human life and health, and of consumers’ interests and right to be informed about the food they consume. The master thesis presents the foundations and the legislation on inspection bodies responsible for food safety. Purpose: The master thesis seeks to review existing legislation and find correlations between good practices by considering the time a particular body was established and the method of operation in three Member States. In this respect, two research questions were posed. First, it was examined if there are essential differences between the legislation on and the competence of inspection bodies responsible for food safety in selected Member States. Second, it was explored if Slovenian legislation on inspection bodies supervising food safety is adequate in terms of meeting the demands of primary and secondary EU law on food safety. Methods: An in-depth overview of existing expert literature, legislation in selected Member States, legal application and administrative practice of inspection bodies, online resources and materials provided by stakeholders and legislative bodies at the EU and national levels was performed. In this respect, the year the country joined the European Union (the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia) was applied as a selection criterion with regard to reviewing national legislation. The reviewed material provided the basis for the central analysis that included summaries. Selected resources included seven articles, five monographs and eleven legislative texts, and numerous commentaries. Results: The review of relevant legislation showed that the answer to the first research question is affirmative, and the crucial reason is different legislative frameworks in individual Members States and hence the division of competences. The answer to the second research question is partly affirmative: while Slovenian legislation on inspection bodies supervising food safety does follow EU law, there is a marked difference if requirements posed by EU law are assessed in terms of response rate, unified approach and effectiveness of protection for human health and consumers’ interests. Discussion and conclusion: Findings show that EU legislation does not provide clear guidance on how to set up inspection services in Member States. However, the EU does provide guidelines which should be followed with regard to the establishment and operation of inspection services. In this respect, it is also significant that in Slovenia, legislative powers are rather unnecessarily divided between the Health Inspectorate, and the Administration for Food Safety, Veterinary Sector and Plant Protection. There is no reasonable explanation for such an arrangement, and it would make sense if one body was fully responsible for food safety. Better awareness of the safety and quality of food positively affects public opinion and trust in safe food supply, where responsible producers play the most important role, and consequently inspection bodies in the whole food chain.
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