Warning issued after US company contacted EU residents over the internet

Food safety officials in Luxembourg have issued a warning after a company in the United States contacted residents about dietary supplements.

The Food Safety Unit of the National Directorate of Health said it was aware of an incident in which an anonymous company based in the United States approached Luxembourgers on social media to recruit them to sell their products in Europe . The first contact was accompanied by scientific articles aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of the products.

These food supplements have “questionable” claims and are potentially non-compliant with European regulations, according to the authority.

The Food Safety Unit said anyone agreeing to such a proposal would take responsibility for ensuring that food law requirements are met. He urged people to remain vigilant in the face of such offers.

Food security: role of businesses
European law defines a food business operator as the natural or legal person (s) responsible for ensuring that the requirements of food law are met within the business under their control.

A food company is defined as any public or private company carrying out, for profit or not, activities related to any stage of the production, processing and distribution of food.

Another regulation states that the food company responsible for food information is the operator under whose name or trade name the food is marketed or, if that company is not in Europe, the importer in the market. of the EU.

Luxembourg is also still working on the creation of a single administration in charge of official controls in the food chain.

The plan of the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Consumer Protection will bring together the Food Security Unit of the Department of Health, the Administration of Veterinary Services, certain services falling under the Administration of Agricultural Technical Services, and the Government Quality Commission. , fraud and food safety.

The bill creating a new veterinary and food agency in Luxembourg was tabled in November 2020.

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