These are the conclusions in a report published by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) today, following a remote audit of Norway from 22 February to 5 March 2021

The objective of the audit was to evaluate the effectiveness of official controls on residues of veterinary medicinal products (VMPs), pesticides and contaminants in live animals and animal products. These controls are necessary to detect any misuse of such products and ensure the safety of food.

ESA found that Norway has an overall good system in place for official controls related to residues, though some shortcomings were identified.

The report includes recommendations to strengthen official controls, such as improving the sampling strategy for detection of residues and ensuring all sampling is unforeseen and unexpected.

In response to ESAs preliminary report, Norway has provided a plan of corrective actions to address the recommendations. This plan is attached to the report published today.

Food safety in the EEA

EEA law sets high standards for food and feed safety, and for animal health and welfare. EEA citizen have the right to know how the food they consume is produced, processed, packaged, labelled and sold.

ESA is responsible for monitoring how Iceland and Norway implement EEA rules on food safety, feed safety and animal health and welfare.

Consequently, ESA performs audits in both countries annually, while Liechtenstein is subject to a different surveillance system for food safety.

ESA’s report can be found here.