SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 23 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government Council of the Canary Islands has requested this Thursday the mandatory opinion of the Advisory Council on the draft decree that designates the Vice Ministry of the Primary Sector as the control body of the Food Chain Law, a joint proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the Ministry of Public Administrations, Justice and Security.
The Deputy Ministry of the Primary Sector has been designated as the appropriate body within the organic structure of the Ministry to carry out the necessary control for compliance with the provisions of the Food Chain Law, which has as its objective the commercial relations that occur between the operators involved in the food chain, from the production to the distribution of agricultural or food products.
The decree also establishes the functions and actions of the executing authority, determining the substantial elements of the control activity, so that the exercise of the entrusted functions is carried out with the necessary security and guarantee for all the operators of the food chain, details the Government in a note.
These control functions fall on the set of activities of the different operators involved in the production, transformation and distribution of agricultural and food products, including hotel and restaurant companies.
The control actions will be aimed at examining, verifying and investigating the obligations imposed on operators of the food chain by law, as well as determining the commission of possible infractions in terms of food contracting typified in the same law that could give rise to the corresponding sanctioning procedure.
These actions will be carried out by civil servants duly accredited by the executing authority, who will have the status of agents of the authority.
Official personnel may access any premises, land, facility or means of transportation used by the operators subject to control; verify the stocks of their warehouses, the products obtained, the processes they apply and the
facilities, machinery and equipment used; access the books and documents related to the activity; retain the aforementioned books or documents for a maximum period of five days; seal warehouses, facilities, vehicles, books or documents and other assets of the entity during the time and to the extent that it is necessary to carry out the control, and draw up minutes in which the actions carried out, the information required and the obtained and the facts verified, among other powers.
The minutes will have the character of a public document and, unless the contrary is proven, they will prove the facts that are included in them.
Likewise, the maximum term to resolve and notify the resolution in sanctioning procedures in the matter of food contracting will be six months from the date of the initiation agreement. This decree will enter into force the day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.
The regulatory proposal has been submitted to public consultation between June 24 and July 10, 2022, both inclusive, without any contribution from citizens and agrarian organizations having been received.
