Parliament Think Tank Takes On EU Food and Feed Regulations

The European Parliament’s Think Tank has hosted a public hearing focused on simplifying European Union rules for food and feed safety. These public hearings are a standard tool for parliamentary research services to gather expert input, assess existing legislation, and evaluate the practical burdens facing farmers, processors, and distributors across the single market.

EU food and feed safety laws govern the entire agricultural supply chain across all 27 member states, enforcing strict standards on hygiene, traceability, and chemical usage. While these regulations guarantee robust public health protections, agricultural producers frequently point to overlapping reporting requirements. Streamlining these rules aims to reduce compliance costs for businesses without diluting consumer safeguards.

Few terms in the EU bubble provoke as much cautious maneuvering as 'regulatory simplification.' To industry representatives, it represents long-overdue administrative relief; to health and consumer advocates, it sounds suspiciously like deregulation by another name. Hearings like this allow Parliament to test the waters before the Commission decides whether to put forward a concrete legislative overhaul.

Insights from the hearing will feed into parliamentary briefings and committee discussions. If lawmakers conclude that the current rules need updating, any draft legislation would eventually require full approval from both the European Parliament and member states in the Council of the EU.