Sources

Updated 2026-07-12 · Reviewed by: Redazione ce85204 — revisione editoriale assistita da AI (2026-07-12)

ce85204.com relies on primary sources: EUR-Lex for EU law (CELEX and ELI identifiers), national official journals via Normattiva for Italy, Commission Notices 2016/C 278/01 and 2022/C 355/01, the Codex Alimentarius (CXC 1-1969 and CXC 80-2020), and EFSA scientific opinions.

Everything on ce85204.com rests on primary, official sources, cited precisely and dated. This page describes the sources we use and how they should be read. How we use them is explained in the methodology.

EUR-Lex — Union law

EUR-Lex is the official database of European Union law and the authoritative source for regulations and directives. From it we import the consolidated text of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 and the other Hygiene Package instruments. Two identifiers recur in our citations:

• CELEX is the unique code EUR-Lex assigns to each document. For the consolidated text of the regulation it is 02004R0852-20210324: the leading 0 marks the consolidated version, 2004 is the year, R the type (regulation), 0852 the number and 20210324 the version date (24 March 2021). CELEX lets you retrieve the exact act, version included.
• ELI (European Legislation Identifier) is the persistent, structured URL of the act, of the form data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2004/852/.... It is designed to remain stable over time and to be readable by both people and machines.

Citing CELEX and ELI, rather than just "regulation 852", lets anyone verify that we are referring to the same version of the text. The full version is on the consolidated text page.

National official journals

EU law applies directly, but penalties, competent authorities and detailed rules are national. For Italy the official source is the Gazzetta Ufficiale, available in consolidated form on Normattiva. That is where we find, for example, Legislative Decree No 193 of 6 November 2007, the basis of the Italian penalties. National information always carries a verification date because it changes more often than EU material.

European Commission notices

The Commission publishes guidance documents that have no force of law but shape interpretation. Two are central to food hygiene:

• Notice 2016/C 278/01, on the implementation of food safety management systems, with particular attention to prerequisite programmes and procedures based on the HACCP principles.
• Notice 2022/C 355/01, which updates and completes that framework with guidance on flexibility for small businesses.

We use them to explain what the rule means, always keeping interpretation apart from the text. Concepts such as HACCP and flexibility for small businesses rely on these documents.

The Codex Alimentarius

The Codex Alimentarius, developed by the FAO and the WHO, is the international standard on which European law draws. We cite in particular:

• CXC 1-1969, General Principles of Food Hygiene (2020 revision), the matrix of the HACCP principles taken up by Article 5 of the regulation.
• CXC 80-2020, Code of Practice on Food Allergen Management, the reference for allergen management.

EFSA

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) provides the scientific basis: opinions and risk assessments we refer to when a biological, chemical or physical hazard needs framing. EFSA does not produce legislation, but the science on which legislation rests.

How we cite

At the foot of each commentary page you will find the list of sources with their URL and last-access date. If a reference looks wrong or out of date, report it via the contact page. The documentary value of these texts, and the limits that follow, are set out in the disclaimer.