Food hygiene in Poland: implementing Reg. (EC) 852/2004

This page is the hub for Poland's implementation of Reg. (EC) 852/2004. It gives the overall picture and links to the detail pages and the other jurisdictions covered in the countries pillar.

The division of powers

The most distinctive feature of the Polish model is the split of competence by product type. General food businesses fall to the State Sanitary Inspection (Państwowa Inspekcja Sanitarna, "Sanepid"), headed by the Chief Sanitary Inspector (Główny Inspektor Sanitarny, GIS); establishments handling products of animal origin fall instead to the Veterinary Inspection (Inspekcja Weterynaryjna), under the Chief Veterinary Officer (Główny Lekarz Weterynarii). In our view this is what most sharply sets the Polish case apart: whereas the Netherlands concentrate everything in a single national authority and Spain decentralises by Autonomous Community, Poland divides competence between two distinct inspections according to the nature of the product. The basis for national enforcement and for penalties is the Polish Act on food and nutrition safety (ustawa o bezpieczeństwie żywności i żywienia), which provides for administrative and criminal penalties.

Registration and approval

Reg. 852/2004 requires every food business operator to notify each establishment to the competent authority for registration Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. In Poland this notification follows the split by product type: for general food the counterpart is the district sanitary inspector (państwowy powiatowy inspektor sanitarny) competent for the territory, who handles the registration and/or approval of the establishment (rejestracja / zatwierdzenie); for products of animal origin competence lies with the Veterinary Inspection. Establishments handling products of animal origin may be subject to approval (zatwierdzenie) under Reg. (EC) 853/2004 Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004: an express decision by the Veterinary Inspection that verifies the requirements before start-up. The difference between the two is explained in the concept registration vs approval.

Self-checking, training and GHP/GMP guides

Every food business must put in place self-checking procedures based on HACCP principles Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 and ensure the training of staff who handle food Annex II, Chapter XII, point 1 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. The Polish practice is the widespread use of national good-hygiene-practice (GHP) and good-manufacturing-practice (GMP) guides: sector documents that help businesses apply the hygiene requirements and HACCP principles with the flexibility the regulation allows Article 5(5) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. The regulation itself encourages the development of national guides to good practice Article 8(1) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004: the GHP/GMP guides are the Polish implementation. They remain voluntary support tools: they do not replace the business's responsibility. The operational picture for training is covered in HACCP training in Poland.

Official controls and competent authorities

Official controls are organised under Reg. (EU) 2017/625 Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625, which repealed the earlier Reg. (EC) 854/2004 and 882/2004. In Poland enforcement falls to the Sanitary Inspection for general food and to the Veterinary Inspection for products of animal origin, each within its own area of competence. For a comparison between the Polish split-competence model and a centralised or decentralised one, see the countries pages and the country-comparison tool.