On 1 January 2004 the official food control system of Norway was totally reformed. Two major features of the reform were the establishment of a new authority: the Norwegian Food Safety Authority; and reorganized scientific support through the establishment of an independent risk assessment body: The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM). The new system has a clear separation between the scientists performing risk assessment and the managers with risk management tasks.

The Food Safety Authority was created by merging 5 former control bodies to establish a single governmental body responsible for official controls along the entire food chain, from primary production to product delivery. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food is the administratively responsible ministry for the new authority, but the authority is also subordinate to both Ministry of Health and Care Services and Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs. The constitutional responsibility for food safety lies, however, with the Minister of Health and Care Services.

A recent survey conducted by MMI, one of Norway’s largest and most respected market research agencies, shows that 86 percent of Norwegian consumers have great confidence in the information they receive from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority in health-related issues concerning food.

Many international food and animal health crises during the last years have focused on the need to have a clear separation of tasks between risk assessors and risk managers. In the Norwegian reform, this signal has been followed up through the establishment of a Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety, set up both to serve the Food Safety Authority, but also with competence to communicate its scientific opinions independently of the authorities’ risk management choices. The structure of the scientific committee mirrors the structure chosen by the European Union in the establishment of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The Minister of Health and Care Services is administratively responsible for the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety.

A secretariat serves 8 independent scientific panels consisting of 71 members, all highly qualified scientists from various research/academic institutions. The participants of the panels are chosen every three years based on their scientific merits in the appropriate field covered by the panel.

In addition to the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety several research institutions provide the Norwegian Food Safety Authority with scientific advice in their day to day work. National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) is one of several such institutions. NIFES is specialised in contaminants related to seafood production.

Links:

• Norwegian Food Safety Authority
• Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (in Norwegian)
• National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES)
• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)