From municipal administrations to the European Commission, a great number of authorities and institutions contribute to making food safer. The following text outlines some of the important players.

Official food control checks that companies are complying with the legal provisions. The BVL prepares coordinated control plans as part of these checks.

In order to ensure the high level of health protection within the European Union, various networks and systems were made available to the competent food monitoring authorities of the EU member states, which facilitate the cross-border exchange of …

Businesses wanting to place food of animal origin on the market must be authorised by the competent authority, and are entered and published in the database of companies trading in animal foodstuffs kept by the BVL.

Since July 2013 the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has been hosting the Common Central Unit "Control of Food, Feed, Cosmetics, Consumer Goods and Tobacco Products Traded on the Internet", in short G@ZIELT.

With high professional and scientific authority, the commission drafts opinions on specific issues concerning the classification of substances which are placed on the market as foodstuffs/food ingredients.

Members from 26 European states are developing a concept for the handling and classification of "other substances" with a nutritional or physiological effect that are used in or as food supplements.

The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) can take over co-ordinating functions in crisis management of food-borne disease outbreaks that affect more than one federal state.

System in place for identification, epidemiological investigations and reporting of foodborne outbreaks.