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

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.