A summary of the public consultations on the draft amendment to the Food and Nutrition Safety Act (UD 247) has been published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre. The results of the consultations show that some of the solutions that raised significant concerns within the industry have been amended or completely removed from the draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Administrative Procedure Code remains applicable in explanatory proceedings before the GIS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most important changes is the removal from the draft of Article 30(1a), which provided for the exclusion of the application of the Administrative Procedure Code (KPA) in explanatory proceedings conducted by the GIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that the procedural safeguards arising from the KPA will continue to apply in these proceedings, including those concerning the party\u2019s participation in the proceedings, access to the case files, and the obligation to establish the factual circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the perspective of businesses, this is particularly important in cases concerning the classification of products and their compliance with food law requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other significant changes \u2013 what should be noted?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A number of solutions concerning the notification procedure have also been withdrawn from the draft, including, among others, the 14-day deadline for forwarding a request for an opinion from a scientific institution or the President of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices and Biocidal Products (URPL)<\/strong>, mechanisms that would place the consequences of delays by the authorities on businesses, and solutions that could lead to the transformation of the notification system into a quasi-authorisation system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposal to increase the maximum administrative fines from 30 times to 100 times the average remuneration<\/strong> has also been abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, the possibility for an entrepreneur who intends to place a product on the market<\/strong> to submit a notification has been retained, which is important for the pre-launch processes of new products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposals concerning the e-Sanepid<\/strong> platform have also been taken into account, including the possibility of using an alternative method of submitting documents in the event that the system is unavailable, and solutions have been introduced to protect proceedings that are already pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Draft UD 247 will be subject to further legislative work. From the perspective of businesses operating in the food and food supplement market, it is particularly important, however, that the KPA remains an element of explanatory proceedings before the GIS<\/strong>, while some of the most controversial proposals have been removed from the draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n