Federal Act
on Foodstuffs and Utility Articles
(Foodstuffs Act, FSA)

The aim of this Act is:

a.

to pro­tect the health of con­sumers from food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles that are un­safe;

b.

to en­sure that food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles are handled hy­gien­ic­ally;

c.

to pro­tect con­sumers from de­cep­tion re­lat­ing to food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles;

d.

to provide con­sumers with the in­form­a­tion re­quired when pur­chas­ing food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles.

¹ This Act ap­plies to:

a.

the hand­ling of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, i.e. their man­u­fac­ture, pro­cessing, stor­age, trans­port and pla­cing on the mar­ket;

b.

the la­belling and present­a­tion of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, their ad­vert­ising and the in­form­a­tion provided about them;

c.

the im­port, ex­port and trans­it of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles.

² It ap­plies to all pro­duc­tion, pro­cessing and dis­tri­bu­tion levels, in­clud­ing primary pro­duc­tion, provided they are rel­ev­ant to the man­u­fac­ture of food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles.

³ This Act ap­plies to im­por­ted food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, un­less Switzer­land is oth­er­wise ob­liged in terms of an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty.

⁴ This Act does not ap­ply to:

a.

the primary pro­duc­tion of food­stuffs for private do­mest­ic use;

b.

the im­port of food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles for private do­mest­ic use; para­graph 5 is re­served;

c.

the do­mest­ic man­u­fac­ture, hand­ling and stor­age of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles for private do­mest­ic use;

d.

sub­stances and products sub­ject to the le­gis­la­tion on thera­peut­ic products.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­strict the im­port of food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles in­ten­ded for private do­mest­ic use.

¹ Food­stuffs that are in­ten­ded for ex­port must com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of this Act.

² They need not com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of this Act if the le­gis­la­tion or the au­thor­it­ies of the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion re­quire or per­mit oth­er­wise.

³ Food­stuffs that do not com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of this Act may only be ex­por­ted if the au­thor­it­ies of the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion agree to the im­port after be­ing in­formed in de­tail of the reas­ons why the food­stuffs con­cerned may not be placed on the mar­ket in Switzer­land, and about the par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances.

⁴ Util­ity art­icles that are in­ten­ded for ex­port must com­ply with the pro­vi­sions ap­plic­able in the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire oth­er­wise.

⁵ Food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles that are harm­ful to health may not be ex­por­ted.

¹ Food­stuffs are all sub­stances or products that are in­ten­ded or may reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted to be con­sumed by hu­man be­ings in a pro­cessed, partly pro­cessed or un­pro­cessed state.

² Food­stuffs also in­clude:

a.

drinks, in­clud­ing wa­ter, in­ten­ded for hu­man con­sump­tion;

b.

chew­ing gum;

c.

all sub­stances that are in­ten­tion­ally ad­ded to food­stuffs in the course of their man­u­fac­ture, pro­cessing or treat­ment.

³ The fol­low­ing are not food­stuffs:

a.

an­im­al feed;

b.

liv­ing an­im­als, un­less they are pre­pared for the pla­cing on the mar­ket for hu­man con­sump­tion;

c.

plants pri­or to har­vest­ing;

d.

medi­cin­al products;

e.

cos­met­ics;

f.

to­bacco and to­bacco products;

g.

nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances;

h.

residues and con­tam­in­ants.

Util­ity art­icles are art­icles that fall with­in one of the fol­low­ing product cat­egor­ies:

a.

con­sumer art­icles: art­icles and ma­ter­i­als:

1.

that are in­ten­ded to come in con­tact with food­stuffs,

2.

that may be ex­pec­ted to come in con­tact with food­stuffs if used in a nor­mal or reas­on­ably fore­see­able man­ner, or

3.

that are in­ten­ded to trans­fer their con­stitu­ents to food­stuffs;

b.

cos­met­ics and oth­er art­icles, sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions which, when used as nor­mally in­ten­ded, come ex­tern­ally in­to con­tact with the body, teeth or mu­cous mem­branes;

c.

utensils and inks for tat­too­ing and per­man­ent make-up;

d.

art­icles of cloth­ing, tex­tiles and oth­er art­icles which, when used as nor­mally in­ten­ded, come in­to con­tact with the body;

e.

toys and oth­er art­icles in­ten­ded to be used by chil­dren;

f.

candles, matches, light­ers, and joke and nov­elty items;

g.

aer­o­sol dis­pensers that con­tain food­stuffs or oth­er util­ity art­icles;

h.

art­icles and ma­ter­i­als in­ten­ded for the fur­nish­ing and dec­or­a­tion of liv­ing areas, un­less they are sub­ject to oth­er product-spe­cif­ic le­gis­la­tion;

i.

wa­ter that is in­ten­ded to come in con­tact with the hu­man body in fa­cil­it­ies that are ac­cess­ible to the gen­er­al pub­lic or to an au­thor­ised, not ex­clus­ively private group of per­sons, and which is not in­ten­ded for drink­ing, such as shower and bathwa­ter in hos­pit­als, nurs­ing homes or ho­tels.

Pla­cing on the mar­ket in terms of this Act means the dis­tri­bu­tion of food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles, any form of their passing-on wheth­er for pay­ment or not, their be­ing made avail­able for sup­ply wheth­er for pay­ment or not, and their of­fer­ing for sup­ply and their sup­ply it­self.

¹ Only safe food­stuffs may be placed on the mar­ket.

² Food­stuffs are deemed to be un­safe if it must be as­sumed that they:

a.

are harm­ful to health; or

b.

are un­suit­able for hu­man con­sump­tion.

³ The fol­low­ing must be con­sidered when de­cid­ing wheth­er a food­stuff is safe:

a.

its nor­mal con­di­tions of use at all pro­duc­tion, pro­cessing and dis­tri­bu­tion levels;

b.

its nor­mal con­di­tions of use by con­sumers; and

c.

the in­form­a­tion giv­en or oth­er­wise made gen­er­ally avail­able to con­sumers on avoid­ing cer­tain ef­fects of a spe­cif­ic food­stuff or spe­cif­ic cat­egory of food­stuff that may be harm­ful to health.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late the re­quire­ments for food safety.

⁵ It may in­tro­duce a li­cens­ing or no­ti­fic­a­tion re­quire­ment for:

a.

nov­el foods;

b.

food­stuffs in­ten­ded for people with spe­cial nu­tri­tion­al re­quire­ments due to health reas­ons;

c.

food­stuffs that are ad­vert­ised as hav­ing spe­cial nu­tri­tion­al-physiolo­gic­al or oth­er physiolo­gic­al ef­fects;

d.

food­stuffs from an­im­als that have been ad­min­istered un­li­censed medi­cin­al products in clin­ic­al tri­als.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in­tro­duce fur­ther li­cens­ing or no­ti­fic­a­tion re­quire­ments if Switzer­land has un­der­taken in terms of an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty to ap­ply tech­nic­al reg­u­la­tions that provide for such re­quire­ments.

Any per­son who pro­duces an­im­als or plants for man­u­fac­tur­ing food­stuffs, must pro­duce them so that the food­stuffs man­u­fac­tured do not present a risk to hu­man health, nor give rise to de­cep­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the an­im­al spe­cies whose meat may be used as food­stuffs.

² It shall de­term­ine the spe­cies of an­im­al that may only be slaughtered in slaughter­houses li­censed un­der Art­icle 11.

³ It shall reg­u­late the slaughter of an­im­als which are sick, sus­pec­ted of hav­ing a dis­ease or in­jured.

¹ Any per­son who handles food­stuffs must en­sure that such food­stuffs are not ad­versely af­fected in hy­giene terms by such hand­ling.

² Per­sons who are sick or in­jured and may there­fore put the health of con­sumers at risk by hand­ling food­stuffs must take spe­cial pro­tect­ive meas­ures.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue hy­giene reg­u­la­tions re­lat­ing to:

a.

the hand­ling of food­stuffs;

b.

the premises in which food­stuffs are handled and their equip­ment;

c.

the areas and equip­ment in slaughter­houses re­quired de­pend­ing on the types and num­bers of an­im­als to be slaughtered.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify hy­giene know­ledge re­quire­ments for the per­sons who handle food­stuffs.

¹ Slaughter­houses and busi­nesses that handle food­stuffs of an­im­al ori­gin re­quire an op­er­at­ing li­cence from the can­ton.

² Oth­er busi­nesses act­ive in the pro­duc­tion, pro­cessing or dis­tri­bu­tion of food­stuffs must re­port their activ­it­ies to the can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ex­cep­tions for busi­nesses:

a.

which op­er­ate ex­clus­ively in primary pro­duc­tion; or

b.

whose activ­it­ies present a neg­li­gible risk to food safety.

¹ Any per­son who places pre-pack­aged food­stuffs on the mar­ket must provide pur­chasers with the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion about the food­stuffs:

a.

the coun­try of pro­duc­tion;

b.

the spe­cif­ic des­ig­na­tion;

c.

the in­gredi­ents.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify ex­cep­tions to the in­dic­a­tion provided on the coun­try of pro­duc­tion and the in­gredi­ents in the case of pro­cessed products.

³ The spe­cif­ic des­ig­na­tion may be ac­com­pan­ied by oth­er des­ig­na­tions provided these do not mis­lead con­sumers.

⁴ The spe­cif­ic des­ig­na­tion may be omit­ted provided the nature of the food­stuff is ob­vi­ous.

⁵ On re­quest, it must be pos­sible to provide the same in­dic­a­tions about food­stuffs placed on the mar­ket without pack­aging as for pre-pack­aged food­stuffs.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late fur­ther in­dic­a­tions, in par­tic­u­lar with re­gard to:

a.

stor­age life;

b.

meth­od of stor­age;

c.

ori­gin of the raw ma­ter­i­als;

d.

meth­od of pro­duc­tion;

e.

meth­od of pre­par­a­tion;

f.

spe­cif­ic ef­fects;

g.

spe­cif­ic dangers;

h.

nu­tri­tion­al value.

² It may is­sue reg­u­la­tions on how busi­nesses that sup­ply pre­pared meals to con­sumers must la­bel such meals on their menus.

³ It may is­sue reg­u­la­tions on la­belling to pro­tect the health of per­sons ex­posed to spe­cif­ic health risks.

⁴ It shall reg­u­late:

a.

the ad­miss­ib­il­ity of nu­tri­tion and health claims;

b.

the la­belling of food­stuffs to which sub­stances that are con­sidered es­sen­tial for life or physiolo­gic­ally use­ful have been ad­ded.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late that sci­entif­ic data and in­form­a­tion used to jus­ti­fy health claims may not be used for a cer­tain peri­od to jus­ti­fy the same health claims for a dif­fer­ent product.

⁶ These reg­u­la­tions should not lead to a dis­pro­por­tion­ate ad­di­tion­al ad­min­is­trat­ive bur­den on busi­nesses.

¹ The sup­ply of al­co­hol­ic bever­ages to young people un­der the age of 16 is pro­hib­ited.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­strict the ad­vert­ising of al­co­hol­ic bever­ages that is dir­ec­ted spe­cific­ally at young people un­der the age of 18.

³ Re­stric­tions on sup­ply and ad­vert­ising un­der the fol­low­ing fed­er­al acts are re­served:

a.

Fed­er­al Act of 24 March 2006³ on Ra­dio and Tele­vi­sion;

b.

Al­co­hol Act of 21 June 1932⁴.

¹ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may con­duct or or­der test pur­chases in or­der to veri­fy com­pli­ance with the age re­stric­tion for the sup­ply of al­co­hol­ic bever­ages.

² A test pur­chase is the pur­chase or at­temp­ted pur­chase of an al­co­hol­ic bever­age by an un­der­age per­son who has been au­thor­ised to par­ti­cip­ate in the test.

³ The find­ings ob­tained from the test pur­chases may only be used in crim­in­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings if the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments are met:

a.

The test pur­chases are con­duc­ted by the can­ton­al au­thor­ity or by a re­cog­nised spe­cial­ist or­gan­isa­tion.

b.

The un­der­age per­son and a per­son with par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity for the un­der­age per­son have giv­en writ­ten con­sent to par­ti­cip­at­ing in the test pur­chases.

c.

The can­ton­al au­thor­ity or a re­cog­nised spe­cial­ist or­gan­isa­tion es­tab­lishes that:

1.

the un­der­age per­son is suit­able for the in­ten­ded activ­ity; and

2.

he or she is ad­equately pre­pared for the activ­ity.

d.

The un­der­age per­son shall act an­onym­ously and shall be ac­com­pan­ied by an adult.

e.

No meas­ures shall be taken to con­ceal the true age of the un­der­age per­son.

f.

The test pur­chase shall be re­cor­ded and doc­u­mented im­me­di­ately.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the re­cog­ni­tion and su­per­vi­sion of the spe­cial­ist or­gan­isa­tions in­volved;

b.

the de­tails in re­la­tion to re­cruit­ing, in­struct­ing, ac­com­pa­ny­ing and pro­tect­ing the pri­vacy of the un­der­age per­son;

c.

the re­quire­ments for re­cord­ing and doc­u­ment­ing the test pur­chases con­duc­ted;

d.

the in­form­a­tion giv­en to the sales out­lets con­cerned.

¹ Only safe util­ity art­icles may be placed on the mar­ket.

² A util­ity art­icle is deemed to be safe if it presents no danger or only min­im­al danger when used nor­mally or in a reas­on­ably fore­see­able man­ner or only such danger as is com­men­sur­ate with its nor­mal use and which is reas­on­able while pre­serving of a high level of pro­tec­tion for the health of con­sumers and third parties.

³ In or­der to guar­an­tee the health of con­sumers and third parties, the fol­low­ing as­pects of the util­ity art­icle must be con­sidered in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

its prop­er­ties, its com­pos­i­tion, the con­di­tions for its as­sembly, its in­stall­a­tion and its ini­tial op­er­a­tion;

b.

its main­ten­ance and its ser­vice life;

c.

its ef­fect on oth­er products or the ef­fect of oth­er products on it if it is reas­on­ably fore­see­able that it will be used with these oth­er products;

d.

its present­a­tion, its pack­aging, its la­belling, if ap­plic­able warn­ing no­tices, its in­struc­tions for use and op­er­a­tion and the in­struc­tions for its dis­pos­al as well as all oth­er product-re­lated in­form­a­tion;

e.

the spe­cial risks that it presents to spe­cif­ic groups of con­sumers, in par­tic­u­lar chil­dren and older people.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late the safety re­quire­ments for util­ity art­icles.

⁵ In or­der to guar­an­tee the safety of util­ity art­icles, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also:

a.

re­quire con­form­ity as­sess­ment pro­ced­ures or re­port­ing re­quire­ments for spe­cif­ic util­ity art­icles;

b.

provide that tech­nic­al stand­ards must ap­ply to spe­cif­ic util­ity art­icles, which, when ob­served, lead to the pre­sump­tion that the util­ity art­icle is safe;

c.

re­strict or pro­hib­it the use of cer­tain util­ity art­icles or the use of cer­tain sub­stances in util­ity art­icles;

d.

re­quire the gen­er­al pub­lic to be in­formed about the prop­er­ties of cer­tain util­ity art­icles;

e.

stip­u­late hy­giene re­quire­ments for util­ity art­icles;

f.

stip­u­late re­quire­ments for the spe­cial­ist know­ledge of per­sons hand­ling util­ity art­icles.

¹ Util­ity art­icles must be la­belled in such a way that the pro­tec­tion of health and, in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18, pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion is guar­an­teed.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late re­quire­ments for the la­belling of util­ity art­icles and for their ad­vert­ising.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may im­pose a re­port­ing re­quire­ment on busi­nesses that handle util­ity art­icles.

¹ All in­form­a­tion re­lat­ing to food­stuffs, con­sumer art­icles and cos­met­ics must cor­res­pond to the facts.

² The present­a­tion, la­belling and pack­aging of products un­der para­graph 1 and their ad­vert­ising must not mis­lead con­sumers. The pro­vi­sions of the Trade­mark Pro­tec­tion Act of 28 Au­gust 1992⁶ on in­dic­a­tions of Swiss ori­gin are re­served.

³ In par­tic­u­lar any present­a­tion, la­belling, pack­aging and ad­vert­ising that is li­able to de­ceive con­sumers as to the man­u­fac­ture, com­pos­i­tion, con­di­tion, meth­od of pro­duc­tion, stor­age life, coun­try of pro­duc­tion, ori­gin of the raw ma­ter­i­als or com­pon­ents, par­tic­u­lar ef­fects or spe­cial value of the product is re­garded as mis­lead­ing.

⁴ In or­der to guar­an­tee pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may:

a.

provide a de­scrip­tion of food­stuffs and stip­u­late their des­ig­na­tion;

b.

stip­u­late re­quire­ments for food­stuffs, con­sumer art­icles and cos­met­ics;

c.

is­sue la­belling reg­u­la­tions for areas in which con­sumers as a res­ult of the product or the form of trad­ing may be es­pe­cially li­able to de­cep­tion;

d.

re­com­mend good man­u­fac­tur­ing prac­tices (GMP) for food­stuffs, con­sumer art­icles and cos­met­ics.

⁵ In or­der to im­ple­ment in­ter­na­tion­al ob­lig­a­tions, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ad­di­tion­al util­ity art­icles sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of this Art­icle.

¹ Sub­sti­tute and im­it­a­tion products must be la­belled and ad­vert­ised in such a way that con­sumers can re­cog­nise the true nature of the food­stuff and dis­tin­guish it from products with which it could be con­fused.

² Products that are not food­stuffs may not be presen­ted, la­belled, stored, placed on the mar­ket or ad­vert­ised in such a way that they could be mis­taken for food­stuffs.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­strict or pro­hib­it phys­ic­al, chem­ic­al, mi­cro­bi­o­lo­gic­al or bi­o­tech­no­lo­gic­al pro­cesses for pro­du­cing or treat­ing food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles if a risk to the health of con­sumers can­not be ex­cluded based on cur­rent sci­entif­ic know­ledge. In do­ing so, it shall en­sure com­pli­ance with the re­quire­ments of the Gene Tech­no­logy Act of 21 March 2003⁷.

² It may re­strict or pro­hib­it spe­cif­ic breed­ing meth­ods for an­im­als in­ten­ded for the pro­duc­tion of food­stuffs. If re­lated de­tec­tion meth­ods are avail­able, they must be used.

³ It may re­strict or pro­hib­it the pla­cing on the mar­ket of cos­met­ics whose fi­nal for­mu­la­tion or in­gredi­ents have been tested in an­im­al ex­per­i­ments in or­der to com­ply with the food­stuffs le­gis­la­tion.

¹ Risk ana­lys­is com­prises risk as­sess­ment, risk man­age­ment and risk com­mu­nic­a­tion.

² To en­sure that the health of con­sumers is pro­tec­ted, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall rely on risk ana­lys­is, un­less it is un­suit­able in the cir­cum­stances or in view of the type of meas­ure.

³ The risk as­sess­ment must be based on the avail­able sci­entif­ic know­ledge. It must be car­ried out in an in­de­pend­ent, ob­ject­ive and trans­par­ent man­ner.

⁴ In or­der to achieve the goals of this Act, risk man­age­ment must be car­ried out based on the res­ults of the risk as­sess­ment, in par­tic­u­lar the of­fi­cial ex­pert opin­ions and oth­er es­sen­tial factors, as well as the pre­cau­tion­ary prin­ciple must be taken in­to ac­count.

⁵ Risk com­mu­nic­a­tion is reg­u­lated in par­tic­u­lar in Art­icles 24 and 54.

If, on eval­u­at­ing the avail­able in­form­a­tion, a com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity finds that a food­stuff or a util­ity art­icle could be harm­ful to health, but there is still sci­entif­ic un­cer­tainty, it may take tem­por­ary meas­ures to en­sure a high level of health pro­tec­tion un­til fur­ther sci­entif­ic in­form­a­tion is avail­able that per­mits a more com­pre­hens­ive risk as­sess­ment.

If a product meets the stat­utory re­quire­ments but new sci­entif­ic find­ings in­dic­ate that the product poses a dir­ect risk to con­sumers, the com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity may in­struct the en­force­ment au­thor­ity to im­me­di­ately re­strict the pla­cing on the mar­ket of the product or de­mand its re­call from the mar­ket.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall in­form the gen­er­al pub­lic in par­tic­u­lar about:

a.

its in­spec­tion activ­it­ies and their ef­fect­ive­ness;

b.

food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles in re­spect of which there is suf­fi­cient reas­on to sus­pect that they may pose a health risk.

² The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies may com­mu­nic­ate nu­tri­tion­al know­ledge of gen­er­al in­terest to the gen­er­al pub­lic and to com­puls­ory schools that is in par­tic­u­lar rel­ev­ant to health care, health pro­tec­tion and sus­tain­able nu­tri­tion.

³ They may sup­port the pub­lic in­form­a­tion work of oth­er in­sti­tu­tions.

⁴ The fol­low­ing shall not be made avail­able to the gen­er­al pub­lic:

a.

of­fi­cial in­spec­tion re­ports and doc­u­ments con­tain­ing con­clu­sions drawn from find­ings and in­form­a­tion from in­spec­tions (Art. 32 para. 1);

b.

res­ults of re­search work and sur­veys (Art. 40) if these al­low pro­du­cers, dis­trib­ut­ors or products to be iden­ti­fied;

c.

the risk clas­si­fic­a­tion of busi­nesses by the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies.

¹ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity shall pub­lish re­com­mend­a­tions on the pro­ced­ure for tak­ing samples and ana­lys­ing food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­clare cer­tain sampling and ana­lys­is pro­ced­ures to be man­dat­ory.

¹ Any per­son who man­u­fac­tures, handles, stores, trans­ports, places on the mar­ket, im­ports, ex­ports or car­ries in trans­it food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles must en­sure that the stat­utory re­quire­ments are com­plied with. He or she is ob­liged to en­sure self-su­per­vi­sion.

² Of­fi­cial in­spec­tion does not im­ply an ex­emp­tion from the ob­lig­a­tion to carry out self-su­per­vi­sion.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails of self-su­per­vi­sion and its doc­u­ment­a­tion. It shall provide for sim­pli­fied self-su­per­vi­sion and sim­pli­fied writ­ten doc­u­ment­a­tion for small busi­nesses.

⁴ It may stip­u­late re­quire­ments for the spe­cial­ist know­ledge of per­sons re­spons­ible for self-su­per­vi­sion.

¹ Any per­son who dis­cov­ers that the food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles that they placed on the mar­ket may con­sti­tute a health risk must en­sure that con­sumers are not harmed.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide that find­ings in terms of para­graph 1 must be re­por­ted to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies.

³ It shall reg­u­late the with­draw­al and re­call of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles that may pose a health risk.

⁴ Hold­ers and pur­chasers of an­im­als in­ten­ded for slaughter must no­ti­fy the of­fi­cial veter­in­ari­an or of­fi­cial as­sist­ant in the pub­lic veter­in­ary ser­vice if there are health con­cerns con­cern­ing an an­im­al or if an an­im­al has been treated with thera­peut­ic products.

¹ It must be pos­sible to trace the fol­low­ing at all levels of pro­duc­tion, pro­cessing and dis­tri­bu­tion:

a.

food­stuffs, an­im­als in­ten­ded for food pro­duc­tion and all sub­stances per­tain­ing thereto or which may be ex­pec­ted to be pro­cessed in­to a food­stuff;

b.

con­sumer art­icles;

c.

cos­met­ics;

d.

toys.

² Com­pan­ies must set up sys­tems and pro­ced­ures for this pur­pose so that at the au­thor­it­ies’ re­quest, they can provide the in­form­a­tion on sup­pli­ers and com­pan­ies to whom they sup­plied their products.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ex­tend the trace­ab­il­ity ob­lig­a­tion to cov­er fur­ther util­ity art­icles if Switzer­land is re­quired to do so un­der an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty.

¹ Any per­son who man­u­fac­tures, handles, stores, trans­ports, places on the mar­ket, im­ports, ex­ports or car­ries in trans­it food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles, must as­sist the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies free of charge in the con­duct of their work, and must on re­quest provide samples of products on of­fer and the re­quired in­form­a­tion.

² Any per­son who slaughters an­im­als must make avail­able, free of charge, the premises, equip­ment and aux­il­i­ary per­son­nel which are ne­ces­sary for in­spect­ing the an­im­als be­fore their slaughter and for in­spect­ing the meat.

¹ Risk-based of­fi­cial in­spec­tions shall be car­ried out at each stage of the pro­duc­tion, pro­cessing and dis­tri­bu­tion of food­stuffs, of an­im­als kept for food­stuffs pro­duc­tion and of util­ity art­icles.

² The en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies shall veri­fy com­pli­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the le­gis­la­tion on food­stuffs. In par­tic­u­lar they shall veri­fy wheth­er:

a.

the reg­u­la­tions on self-su­per­vi­sion are be­ing com­plied with and per­sons who handle food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles ob­serve the hy­giene reg­u­la­tions and pos­sess the re­quired spe­cial­ist know­ledge;

b.

the food­stuffs, util­ity art­icles, rooms, equip­ment, vehicles, man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­cess, an­im­als, plants and soil used for ag­ri­cul­ture com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of the le­gis­la­tion on food­stuffs.

³ In or­der to veri­fy com­pli­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the le­gis­la­tion on food­stuffs, the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies may take samples, in­spect doc­u­ments and oth­er re­cords and make cop­ies there­of.

⁴ In con­nec­tion with their du­ties, they shall be giv­en ac­cess to land, build­ings, busi­nesses, rooms, fa­cil­it­ies, vehicles and oth­er in­fra­struc­tures.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may:

a.

reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure, fre­quency and the cer­ti­fic­a­tion of of­fi­cial in­spec­tions;

b.

re­quire that in­spec­tions in spe­cif­ic fields are car­ried out by spe­cially trained per­sons.

¹ The of­fi­cial veter­in­ari­an or the of­fi­cial as­sist­ant in the pub­lic veter­in­ary ser­vice un­der their su­per­vi­sion shall in­spect the fol­low­ing an­im­als be­fore slaughter and the meat after slaughter:

a.

an­im­als of the equine, bovine, ovine, caprine and por­cine spe­cies;

b.

wild an­im­als reared as pro­duct­ive live­stock.

² He or she shall de­cide on how the meat is used there­after.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for:

a.

the in­spec­tion of oth­er an­im­al an­im­al spe­cies be­fore slaughter and the in­spec­tion of the meat;

b.

the in­spec­tion of the meat of an­im­als killed as game.

⁴ It shall reg­u­late:

a.

the pro­ced­ure for the in­spec­tion of an­im­als be­fore slaughter;

b.

the pro­ced­ure for the meat in­spec­tion;

c.

if ap­plic­able the in­spec­tion pro­ced­ure for oth­er an­im­al spe­cies.

¹ The en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies shall no­ti­fy the re­spons­ible per­son at the busi­ness of the in­spec­tion res­ults in writ­ing. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ex­cep­tions for the in­spec­tion of an­im­als be­fore slaughter and the in­spec­tion of the meat after slaughter.

² If no com­plaint has been re­gistered about a sample, the own­er may de­mand a re­fund of its value, provided the sample is at least equi­val­ent to a cer­tain min­im­um value. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine this min­im­um value.

If the en­force­ment au­thor­ity es­tab­lishes that the stat­utory re­quire­ments have not been met, they shall file a com­plaint.

¹ If the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies have filed a com­plaint about a product, they shall or­der the meas­ures re­quired to re­store it to its law­ful state.

² They may or­der that the product com­plained of:

a.

may be used and wheth­er such use is sub­ject to con­di­tions;

b.

must be dis­posed of by the com­pany at its ex­pense;

c.

must be con­fis­cated, rendered harm­less, re­cycled in a harm­less man­ner or dis­posed of at the ex­pense of the com­pany.

³ They may re­quire the re­spons­ible per­son at the busi­ness:

a.

to in­vest­ig­ate the de­fi­cien­cies;

b.

to take suit­able meas­ures;

c.

to in­form the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies of the meas­ures taken.

⁴ If re­quire­ments are re­peatedly dis­reg­arded, the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies may or­der the dis­pos­al or the for­feit­ure of the product.

⁵ In re­la­tion to im­ports, the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies may also or­der that a product com­plained of:

a.

be re­fused entry;

b.

be giv­en to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­ity for fur­ther test­ing;

c.

be sent back, provided the per­son re­spons­ible for ship­ping and the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the coun­try of ori­gin agree;

d.

be sent to a new coun­try of des­tin­a­tion at the re­quest of the per­son re­spons­ible for ship­ping provided the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion agrees.

¹ In the case of com­plaints that are not re­lated to products, the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies may re­quire the re­spons­ible per­son at the busi­ness:

a.

to in­vest­ig­ate the causes of the de­fects;

b.

to take suit­able meas­ures to rec­ti­fy the de­fects;

c.

to in­form the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies of the res­ults of the in­vest­ig­a­tion in­to the causes and of the meas­ures taken.

² They may per­man­ently or tem­por­ar­ily pro­hib­it man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­cesses, the slaughter of an­im­als or the use of fa­cil­it­ies, premises, equip­ment, vehicles and ag­ri­cul­tur­al land.

³ If the con­di­tions at a busi­ness present a dir­ect and ser­i­ous risk to pub­lic health, the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies may or­der its im­me­di­ate clos­ure.

¹ The en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies shall con­fis­cate products that are the cause of a com­plaint if this is ne­ces­sary for the pro­tec­tion of con­sumers or third parties.

² They may also con­fis­cate products in cases of well-foun­ded sus­pi­cion if this ap­pears to be ne­ces­sary to pro­tect con­sumers or third parties.

³ The con­fis­cated products may be placed in of­fi­cial stor­age.

⁴ Con­fis­cated products that can­not be stored should be used or dis­posed of, tak­ing ac­count of the in­terests of those in­volved.

¹ The en­force­ment au­thor­ity shall re­port any in­fringe­ment of the pro­vi­sions of food­stuffs le­gis­la­tion that may be a crim­in­al of­fence to the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­ity.

² In minor cases, they may de­cline to re­port in­fringe­ments.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­force this Act in re­la­tion to im­port, ex­port and trans­it.

² It may in in­di­vidu­al cases del­eg­ate spe­cif­ic en­force­ment du­ties and the au­thor­ity to take the fi­nal de­cision to the can­ton con­cerned.

¹ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity may may pro­hib­it the im­port of cer­tain un­safe products where the risk to the health of the pop­u­la­tion can­not oth­er­wise be aver­ted.

² They may or­der that spe­cif­ic products may only be im­por­ted if the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the ex­port­ing coun­try or an ac­cred­ited agency cer­ti­fies that the product com­plies with Swiss food­stuffs le­gis­la­tion.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pro­cure and study the sci­entif­ic in­form­a­tion ne­ces­sary for the ap­plic­a­tion of this Act.

² It may con­duct stud­ies it­self or in col­lab­or­a­tion with the can­tons.

¹ In fixed in­stall­a­tions used by the armed forces, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall if pos­sible ar­range for the can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies to carry out in­spec­tions of food­stuffs.

² In ad­di­tion, the armed forces shall them­selves en­sure that the re­quire­ments of this Act are met.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and the pro­ced­ure.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall su­per­vise the en­force­ment of this Act by the can­tons.

² It shall co­ordin­ate en­force­ment meas­ures and the pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion and shall is­sue na­tion­al in­spec­tion and emer­gency plans.

³ It may for the pur­pose of co­ordin­a­tion:

a.

re­quire the can­tons to in­form the Con­fed­er­a­tion of en­force­ment meas­ures and of the res­ults of in­spec­tions and tests;

b.

re­quire the can­tons to carry out spe­cif­ic meas­ures with a view to har­mon­ising en­force­ment;

c.

in ex­traordin­ary situ­ations, in­struct the can­tons to carry out spe­cif­ic en­force­ment meas­ures.

⁴ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity may:

a.

co­ordin­ate and sup­port inter-labor­at­ory test­ing by the can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies;

b.

con­duct its own inter-labor­at­ory test­ing in co­oper­a­tion with the can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall co­ordin­ate the en­force­ment of this Act with the en­force­ment of the fol­low­ing acts in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

An­im­al Pro­tec­tion Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005⁸;

b.

Thera­peut­ic Products Act of 15 Decem­ber 2000⁹;

c.

Gene Tech­no­logy Act of 21 March 2003¹⁰;

d.

Epi­dem­ics Act of 28 Septem­ber 2012¹¹;

e.

Ag­ri­cul­ture Act of 29 April 1998¹²;

f.

Epi­zo­ot­ic Dis­eases Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966¹³.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall run na­tion­al ref­er­ence labor­at­or­ies.

² If the com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity is un­able to run ref­er­ence labor­at­or­ies it­self, it shall del­eg­ate this task to third parties. If the threshold value in Art­icle 6 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Act of 16 Decem­ber 1994¹⁴ on Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment is ex­ceeded, it shall in­vite tenders for the con­tract.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the labor­at­or­ies’ areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity and reg­u­late their tasks.

⁴ The labor­at­or­ies must:

a.

meet the in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ards on the op­er­a­tion of test­ing labor­at­or­ies and be ac­cred­ited in their as­signed field of activ­ity;

b.

have suf­fi­cient staff, rooms, equip­ment and re­sources to be able to ful­fil their tasks at all times;

c.

be able to provide suit­able guar­an­tees of their cred­ib­il­ity, im­par­ti­al­ity and in­de­pend­ence vis-à-vis per­sons who man­u­fac­ture, im­port or place on the mar­ket products that fall with­in the scope of re­spons­ib­il­ity of the labor­at­or­ies con­cerned.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of in­ter­na­tion­ally har­mon­ised reg­u­la­tions, guidelines, re­com­mend­a­tions and stand­ards and may de­clare such ar­range­ments ap­plic­able.

² It may del­eg­ate the en­act­ment of ad­min­is­trat­ive and tech­nic­al reg­u­la­tions to the com­pet­ent fed­er­al of­fice.

¹ The fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies shall work with spe­cial­ised na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al of­fices and in­sti­tu­tions and carry out the tasks re­quired un­der in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies.

² In­ter­na­tion­al ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance is gov­erned by Art­icle 22 of the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 1995¹⁵ on Tech­nic­al Bar­ri­ers to Trade.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may on its own ini­ti­at­ive con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments on Switzer­land’s par­ti­cip­a­tion in in­ter­na­tion­al sys­tems to guar­an­tee the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles.

⁴ It may re­cog­nise for­eign in­spec­tion agen­cies, de­clar­a­tions and cer­ti­fic­ates of con­form­ity and in­spec­tions, con­trols, con­form­ity as­sess­ments or li­cen­cing pro­ced­ures car­ried out abroad. Art­icle 18 para­graph 2 of the Fed­er­al Act on Tech­nic­al Bar­ri­ers to Trade re­mains re­served.

¹ For­eign au­thor­it­ies that wish to in­spect Swiss busi­nesses that ex­port food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles to their coun­tries re­quire the con­sent of the com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity. The au­thor­ity shall is­sue its con­sent if:

a.

the in­spec­tions have the sole pur­pose of veri­fy­ing com­pli­ance with the reg­u­la­tions of the coun­try con­cerned on man­u­fac­tur­ing food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles and with the re­quire­ments re­lat­ing to the con­di­tion of the food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles to be ex­por­ted; and

b.

the busi­ness to be in­spec­ted agrees to the in­spec­tion.

² The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity may re­quire that it be al­lowed to at­tend the in­spec­tion or that it be no­ti­fied of the res­ults by the for­eign au­thor­ity that car­ries out the in­spec­tion.

³ The com­pet­ent Swiss au­thor­it­ies may in­spect busi­nesses in the coun­tries that ex­port food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles to Switzer­land provided:

a.

this is re­quired to guar­an­tee health pro­tec­tion; and

b.

pro­vi­sion is made for this in an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment or the coun­tries con­cerned con­sent in in­di­vidu­al cases.

¹ The can­tons shall en­force this Act un­less the Con­fed­er­a­tion is re­spons­ible.

² They shall en­sure that in­spec­tions of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles are car­ried out in Switzer­land.

¹ The can­tons shall op­er­ate spe­cial­ised and ac­cred­ited labor­at­or­ies for the test­ing of samples.

² They may merge labor­at­or­ies in or­der to op­er­ate them to­geth­er.

³ They may also del­eg­ate the test­ing of samples to ac­cred­ited in­spec­tion agen­cies.

¹ The can­tons shall ap­point as en­force­ment of­ficers:

a.

a can­ton­al chem­ist;

b.

a can­ton­al veter­in­ari­an;

c.

the re­quired num­ber of:

1.

food in­spect­ors,

2.

food con­trol­lers,

3.

of­fi­cial veter­in­ari­ans,

4.

of­fi­cial as­sist­ants.

² They may del­eg­ate spe­cial in­spec­tion du­ties to oth­er en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ad­di­tion­al can­ton­al en­force­ment of­ficers.

¹ The can­tons shall en­act im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on can­ton­al en­force­ment and reg­u­late the du­ties and or­gan­isa­tion of their en­force­ment of­ficers in terms of this Act.

² They shall no­ti­fy the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies of their im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

¹ Each can­ton shall on its own ter­rit­ory co­ordin­ate the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the le­gis­la­tion on food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles from man­u­fac­ture to sup­ply to the con­sumers.

² The can­ton­al chem­ist shall en­force this Act in re­la­tion to food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles. In do­ing so, he or she shall be pro­fes­sion­ally in­de­pend­ent.

³ The can­ton­al veter­in­ari­an shall en­force this Act in re­la­tion to the primary pro­duc­tion of food­stuffs of an­im­al ori­gin and the slaughter of an­im­als. The can­ton may also del­eg­ate him or her the task of in­spect­ing the pro­cessing of slaughtered an­im­als. The can­ton­al veter­in­ari­an shall be pro­fes­sion­al in­de­pend­ent in car­ry­ing out these tasks.

⁴ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall provide the re­ports to the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies re­quired un­der this Act.

⁵ They shall par­ti­cip­ate in the su­per­vis­ory activ­it­ies car­ried out by the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies or by in­ter­na­tion­al agen­cies.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the pro­fes­sion­al re­quire­ments for em­ploy­ees of the vari­ous en­force­ment agen­cies.

² It shall de­term­ine the train­ing pro­grammes and the qual­i­fic­a­tions that em­ploy­ees of the en­force­ment agen­cies must have.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons shall jointly en­sure the train­ing of the per­sons re­spons­ible for en­for­cing this Act.

² The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity may ap­point ex­am­in­a­tion boards to or­gan­ise ex­am­in­a­tions for em­ploy­ees of the en­force­ment agen­cies.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late or­gan­isa­tion of the ex­am­in­a­tions.

⁴ It may del­eg­ate the or­gan­isa­tion of ex­am­in­a­tions for food con­trol­lers to the can­tons.

⁵ The com­pet­ent Fed­er­al Of­fice shall de­cide on the re­cog­ni­tion of train­ing pro­grammes and ex­am­in­a­tions.

¹ If the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies es­tab­lish that un­safe food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles have been sup­plied to an un­deter­mined num­ber of con­sumers, they shall en­sure that the pub­lic are in­formed and ad­vised on what ac­tion to take.

² If the pub­lic in two or more can­tons are placed at risk, the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies shall provide in­form­a­tion and re­com­mend­a­tions.

³ In minor cases, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may make the in­form­a­tion avail­able on­line.

⁴ The au­thor­ity con­sult, if pos­sible be­fore­hand:

a.

the per­son who man­u­fac­tured or im­por­ted the product or placed it on the mar­ket;

b.

con­sumer or­gan­isa­tions.

⁵ They may in­struct the per­son re­spons­ible for pla­cing the product on the mar­ket to provide in­form­a­tion to the pub­lic.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may del­eg­ate tasks re­lated to of­fi­cial in­spec­tions to third parties, in par­tic­u­lar com­pan­ies and or­gan­isa­tions. They may cre­ate suit­able or­gan­isa­tions for this pur­pose.

² In or­der to carry out their activ­it­ies, third parties must be:

a.

ac­cred­ited;

b.

re­cog­nised by Switzer­land un­der an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment; or

c.

in some oth­er way au­thor­ised or re­cog­nised un­der fed­er­al law.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the stand­ards for ac­cred­it­a­tion.

⁴ The au­thor­it­ies con­cerned shall define the tasks and powers that they as­sign to third parties. The third parties may not or­der any meas­ures.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the can­tons may au­thor­ise third party con­tract­ors to charge fees for their activ­it­ies un­der this Act. Their tar­iffs shall re­quire the ap­prov­al of the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs.

⁶ Co­oper­a­tion by third parties shall be sub­ject to state su­per­vi­sion. Third parties must re­port to the au­thor­it­ies that have del­eg­ated them du­ties or powers on the man­age­ment and ac­count­ing tasks as­signed to them.

Per­sons as­signed tasks re­lat­ing to the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act are sub­ject to a duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity. Art­icles 24 and 60 are re­served.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall bear the cost of en­for­cing this Act in their re­spect­ive areas of com­pet­ence.

² The can­tons shall en­sure that ap­pro­pri­ate fin­an­cial re­sources are made avail­able for of­fi­cial in­spec­tions.

¹ In­spec­tions of food­stuffs are free of charge, un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise.

² Fees shall be charged for:

a.

in­spec­tions that lead to a com­plaint be­ing made; in par­tic­u­larly minor cases, a fee need not be charged;

b.

re­peated com­plaints about the same mat­ter;

c.

the fol­low-up in­spec­tion of a busi­ness;

d.

the cost of restor­ing the law­ful po­s­i­tion (sub­sti­tute per­form­ance);

e.

the in­spec­tion of an­im­als be­fore slaughter and of their meat for the pur­poses of this Act;

f.

the in­spec­tion of meat cut­ting plants;

g.

the in­spec­tion of food­stuffs of an­im­al ori­gin car­ried out by fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies;

h.

spe­cial ser­vices and in­spec­tions car­ried out on re­quest;

i.

li­cences, in­clud­ing op­er­at­ing li­cences for slaughter­houses and meat cut­ting plants; oth­er op­er­at­ing li­cences un­der Art­icle 11 para­graph 1 are free of charge.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in­tro­duce a fee to fund spe­cial in­spec­tions of im­ports based on known or new risks to spe­cif­ic food­stuffs. The im­port­er shall pay the fee.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in­tro­duce ad­di­tion­al fees where Switzer­land is re­quired un­der an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty to charge the same.

⁵ It shall de­term­ine the fees charged for in­spec­tions by the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies.

⁶ It shall de­term­ine the frame­work for can­ton­al fees.

¹ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies are en­titled to pro­cess per­son­al data, in­clud­ing data on ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and sanc­tions, provided this re­quire to carry out their du­ties un­der this Act.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the form and con­tent of pro­cessing and shall de­term­ine the peri­ods for which data must be re­tained and after which data must be des­troyed.

¹ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies, the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies and third parties in terms of para­graph 2 let­ters c and d shall sup­ply each oth­er with the data that they need to:

a.

be able to ful­fil the tasks as­signed to them un­der the food­stuffs le­gis­la­tion;

b.

be able to ful­fil their re­port­ing du­ties un­der in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies re­lat­ing to food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late:

a.

the pro­ced­ure for ex­chan­ging data;

b.

the form in which the data is provided;

c.

the ex­change of data with third parties that have been as­signed pub­lic du­ties un­der Art­icle 55;

d.

the ex­change of data with third parties that have been en­trus­ted with du­ties un­der Art­icles 14–16, 18, 64 and 180 of the Ag­ri­cul­ture Act of 29 April 1998¹⁶.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and pro­ced­ures for ex­chan­ging per­son­al data with for­eign au­thor­it­ies and in­sti­tu­tions and with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.

² Data on ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings may only be passed on to for­eign au­thor­it­ies and in­sti­tu­tions or to in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions if:

a.

this is re­quired by in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments or de­cisions of in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions; or

b.

it is ab­so­lutely ne­ces­sary in or­der to avert an im­min­ent risk to health.

¹ The Fed­er­al Food Safety and Veter­in­ary Of­fice (FS­VO) shall op­er­ate an in­form­a­tion sys­tem:

a.

to guar­an­tee the safety and hy­giene of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles as well as pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion in terms of its du­ties un­der this Act;

b.

to sup­port the en­force­ment activ­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons un­der this Act;

c.

to fa­cil­it­ate re­port­ing at na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al levels.

² The FS­VO in­form­a­tion sys­tem is part of the joint cent­ral in­form­a­tion sys­tem along the food chain of the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Ag­ri­cul­ture (FO­AG) and of the FS­VO that aims to guar­an­tee the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and fault­less primary pro­duc­tion.

³ The FS­VO in­form­a­tion sys­tem shall con­tain per­son­al data in­clud­ing:

a.

data on ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and sanc­tions;

b.

health data in re­la­tion to the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles;

c.

data on the res­ults of in­spec­tions and labor­at­ory ana­lyses;

d.

data on de­cep­tion in con­nec­tion with food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles.

⁴ In terms of their stat­utory du­ties, the fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may pro­cess data in the FS­VO in­form­a­tion sys­tem on­line:

a.

the FS­VO: to guar­an­tee the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, the hy­giene of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and fault­less primary pro­duc­tion;

b.

the FO­AG: to guar­an­tee the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, the hy­giene of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and fault­less primary pro­duc­tion;

c.¹⁷

the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity (FO­CBS): for the pur­pose of car­ry­ing out its du­ties un­der Art­icle 38 para­graph 1;

d.

the can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies: to ful­fil their du­ties in their re­spect­ive areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity.

⁵ In or­der to ful­fil their du­ties, the fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may ac­cess the fol­low­ing data in the FS­VO in­form­a­tion sys­tem on­line:

a.

the FS­VO: data on the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, the hy­giene of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and primary pro­duc­tion;

b.

the FO­AG: data on the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, the hy­giene of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and primary pro­duc­tion;

c.¹⁸

the FO­CBS: data for the pur­pose of car­ry­ing out its du­ties un­der Art­icle 38 para­graph 1;

d.

oth­er fed­er­al agen­cies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act: data that they re­quire to ful­fil the du­ties as­signed to them, provided the Fed­er­al Coun­cil so provides;

e.

the can­ton­al en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies: data on the safety of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, the hy­giene of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles, pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion, fod­der safety, an­im­al wel­fare, an­im­al pro­tec­tion and primary pro­duc­tion;

f.

third parties as­signed pub­lic du­ties un­der Art­icle 55: data that they re­quire to ful­fil the du­ties as­signed to them;

g.

third parties en­trus­ted with pub­lic du­ties un­der Art­icles 14–16, 18, 64 and 180 of the Ag­ri­cul­ture Act of 29 April 1998¹⁹: data that they re­quire to ful­fil the du­ties as­signed to them.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the fol­low­ing in re­la­tion to the FS­VO in­form­a­tion sys­tem:

a.

the struc­ture and the data cata­logue, in­clud­ing the part used by the can­tons;

b.

re­spons­ib­il­ity for data pro­cessing;

c.

rights of ac­cess, and in par­tic­u­lar rights of on­line ac­cess;

d.

the or­gan­isa­tion­al and tech­nic­al meas­ures re­quired to en­sure data pro­tec­tion and data se­cur­ity;

e.

the pro­ced­ure for work­ing with the can­tons;

f.

the peri­ods for which data must be re­tained and after which data must be des­troyed;

g.

archiv­ing.

⁷ Can­tons that use the FS­VO in­form­a­tion sys­tem for their own en­force­ment du­ties use must is­sue equi­val­ent data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions for their field of activ­ity and des­ig­nate an au­thor­ity to over­see com­pli­ance.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully:

a.

man­u­fac­tures, handles, stores, trans­ports or places on the mar­ket food­stuffs in such a way that, when used nor­mally, they present a risk to health;

b.

man­u­fac­tures, handles, stores, trans­ports or places on the mar­ket util­ity art­icles in such a way that, when used nor­mally or in a reas­on­ably fore­see­able man­ner, they present a risk to health;

c.

im­ports, ex­ports or car­ries in trans­it food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles that present a risk to health;

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² If the of­fend­er acts in a pro­fes­sion­al ca­pa­city or for per­son­al gain, he shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

³ If the of­fend­er acts through neg­li­gence, he shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 180 daily pen­alty units.

⁴ Com­pli­ance with the duty to re­port un­der Art­icle 27 para­graph 2 may be re­garded as grounds for mit­ig­at­ing the pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully:

a.

man­u­fac­tures, handles, stores, trans­ports or places on the mar­ket food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles in such a way that they do not meet the re­quire­ments of this Act;

b.

in­fringes the reg­u­la­tions on the hy­gien­ic hand­ling of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles;

c.

uses sub­stances or pro­ced­ures that are banned for ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion or for the man­u­fac­ture of food­stuffs;

d.

in­fringes the reg­u­la­tions based on this Act re­lat­ing to the im­port, ex­port and trans­it of food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles;

e.

slaughters an­im­als without au­thor­isa­tion oth­er than in au­thor­ised slaughter­houses;

f.

with­holds food­stuffs, util­ity art­icles, premises, equip­ment, fa­cil­it­ies, vehicles, man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­ced­ures, an­im­als, plants, or land used for food­stuff pro­duc­tion from in­spec­tion by the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies, or pre­vents or ob­structs con­trols;

g.

re­fuses to provide the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies with in­form­a­tion re­quired un­der Art­icle 29 para­graph 1;

h.

con­tra­venes the reg­u­la­tions on the sup­ply of al­co­hol­ic drinks;

i.

con­tra­venes the reg­u­la­tions on pro­tec­tion against de­cep­tion re­lat­ing to food­stuffs and util­ity art­icles;

j.

con­tra­venes the reg­u­la­tions on the la­belling, present­a­tion or ad­vert­ising of food­stuffs or util­ity art­icles;

k.

con­tra­venes the reg­u­la­tions on self-su­per­vi­sion un­der Art­icle 26, the ob­lig­a­tion to no­ti­fy un­der Art­icle 27, trace­ab­il­ity un­der Art­icle 28 or the li­cens­ing and the re­port­ing re­quire­ments;

shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 40 000 francs.

² If the of­fend­er acts on a com­mer­cial basis or for fin­an­cial gain, the pen­alty shall be a fine not ex­ceed­ing 80 000 francs.

³ At­tempts and com­pli­city are also of­fences.

⁴ If the of­fend­er acts through neg­li­gence, he shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 20 000 francs.

⁵ If the en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies ob­tain in­form­a­tion on the basis of the ob­lig­a­tion to provide sup­port and in­form­a­tion in Art­icle 29 para­graph 1, such in­form­a­tion is only ad­miss­ible in crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings against the per­son con­cerned if that per­son con­sents or if the in­form­a­tion could have been ob­tained without that per­son’s co­oper­a­tion.

The crim­in­al pro­vi­sions on of­fences in com­mer­cial es­tab­lish­ments and on the for­gery of doc­u­ments un­der Art­icles 6, 7 and 15 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974²⁰ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law also ap­ply to the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies in the field of food­stuffs law.

¹ Of­fences un­der this Act shall be pro­sec­uted and judged by the can­tons.

² The fed­er­al of­fice re­spons­ible for su­per­vi­sion on be­half of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment may re­quire the can­ton­al test­ing au­thor­it­ies to carry out test­ing.

³ The FO­CBS and the FS­VO shall pro­sec­ute and judge of­fences un­der this Act and its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on im­port, ex­port and trans­it that fall with­in their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity.²¹

⁴ Where an of­fence to be pro­sec­uted by the FO­CBS un­der para­graph 3 also con­sti­tutes a dif­fer­ent of­fence to be pro­sec­uted by the FO­CBS, the FO­CBS shall ap­ply the pen­alty that the more ser­i­ous of­fence car­ries; it may in­crease this pen­alty ap­pro­pri­ately.²²

Rul­ings on meas­ures and cer­ti­fic­ates of con­form­ity un­der this Act may be chal­lenged by fil­ing an ob­jec­tion with the au­thor­ity is­su­ing the rul­ing.

Ob­jec­tion and ap­peal pro­ceed­ings against rul­ings is­sued by fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies are gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.

The can­tons shall es­tab­lish an ap­peals au­thor­ity to re­view de­cisions on ob­jec­tions un­der this Act, in­clud­ing dis­cre­tion­ary de­cisions by their en­force­ment agen­cies.

¹ The dead­line for fil­ing an ob­jec­tion amounts to ten days.

² The dead­line for fil­ing for ap­peals against de­cisions on ob­jec­tions amounts to thirty days.

¹ The au­thor­ity is­su­ing a rul­ing or the ap­peal au­thor­ity may re­voke the sus­pens­ive ef­fect of an ob­jec­tion or an ap­peal.

² If an ob­jec­tion or an ap­peal is giv­en sus­pens­ive ef­fect, the au­thor­ity is­su­ing the rul­ing or the ap­peal au­thor­ity may take pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures.

The re­peal and amend­ment of oth­er le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ Art­icles 2–4, 6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20–25, 27–34, 36–43, 44, 45 and 47–57 of the Food­stuffs Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1992²³ as worded pri­or to the com­mence­ment of this Act ap­ply for a max­im­um of four years from the com­mence­ment of this Act to to­bacco and oth­er smoking products and to to­bacco products un­til a cor­res­pond­ing spe­cial fed­er­al act is en­acted.

² The peri­od of valid­ity in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 shall be ex­ten­ded un­til 30 April 2025.²⁴

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the date on which this Act comes in­to force.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 May 2017²⁵