HACCP training in Austria: EU obligation, national implementation

The EU obligation and the referral to Member States

The root of the obligation is single and supranational. Annex II, Chapter XII of Reg. (EC) 852/2004 requires the food business operator to ensure that food handlers are supervised, instructed or trained in food hygiene in line with their work activity Annex II, Chapter XII, point 1 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, and that those responsible for developing and maintaining the self-checking procedure have received adequate training in the application of HACCP principles Annex II, Chapter XII, point 2 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. The regulation adds an explicit referral to national law: any national-law training requirements for people working in certain food sectors must be complied with Annex II, Chapter XII, point 3 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. Training is also an integral part of the self-checking required by Article 5 Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004: an HACCP plan handled by untrained staff is a plan with no implementation.

Austrian implementation: LMSVG and the Länder

In Austria the regulation's referral to national law is framed by the Lebensmittelsicherheits- und Verbraucherschutzgesetz (LMSVG), the federal framework act on food safety, while enforcement of controls falls to the authorities of the Länder and to the district authorities (Bezirksverwaltungsbehörden). In our view the structure is consistent with the logic of the regulation: responsibility lies not with an administration issuing an individual document, but with the food business, which must ensure training appropriate to the type of activity and keep records of it. Since enforcement is at Länder level, individual Länder or district authorities may have adopted their own guidance or operational notes: the reference must be sought from the authority with territorial competence and on the official portals, not anticipated here with hours, fees or syllabuses that may change.

What the business must do now

The operator must organise and document the training of its staff, scaling it to the risk of the activity and the tasks performed. The regulation sets no minimum hours, predefined syllabus or mandatory refresher frequency Annex II, Chapter XII, point 3 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004: it is for the business to identify the relevant content (personal hygiene, contamination, cold chain, allergens, self-checking procedures) and to keep proof that training has taken place. During official controls, the competent authority of the Land verifies the adequacy of staff training within the framework of Reg. (EU) 2017/625 Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

The value of the certificate

There is no legally guaranteed national or EU-wide validity for a training certificate. Training is not a title tradeable in the abstract but the discharge of a business obligation: its value lies in being adequate and documented for the specific activity. Anyone selling courses promising a "European card", a title "recognised everywhere" or a non-existent European certification is communicating in a potentially misleading way Article 6 of Directive 2005/29/EC; on the difference between training and certification, see why no certificate exists under Reg. 852/2004. The overall picture of the Austrian system is in the Austria page. For a comparison with other models, see the Germany page and the Italy page.