The central goal of the European Commission's food safety policy is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and consumers interests in relation to food, taking into account diversity, including traditional products, whilst ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market. At the same time it aims to assure a high level of food safety, animal health, animal welfare and plant health within the European Union through coherent farm-to-table measures and adequate monitoring, while ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market.
The Commission's guiding principle, primarily set out in its White Paper on Food Safety, is to apply an integrated approach from farm to table covering all sectors of the food chain, including feed production, primary production, food processing, storage, transport and retail sale.