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

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.