Ramona Pop, the head of the Federal Consumer Center, fears that the new Bureaucracy Reduction Act proposed by Federal Minister of Agriculture Alois Rainer (CSU) will lead to serious compromises in consumer protection. Speaking to media outlets of the Funke-Mediengruppe, Pop stated, “Whoever dismantles transparency weakens consumer protection.” She pointed out that major food scandals have repeatedly demonstrated the necessity for consumers to be informed early about potential risks and rule violations.
The impetus for Pop’s concerns involves the planned removal of vital transparency regulations in food law, as well as adjustments to laboratory reporting mandates. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture intends to strip the Food and Feed Code of the duty to publicly disclose the findings of food inspections as part of a separate bureaucracy reduction initiative. Under current rules, authorities are obliged to inform the public if severe or repeated violations of food safety laws are discovered during controls. These violations can include significant hygiene failures, the presence of banned substances in food, or exceeding established limit values.
Pop emphasized that if serious violations at food production sites were published less frequently, consumers would struggle to accurately assess the risks and make informed choices. She argued that rather than eliminating information, there should be legally secure regulations in place to ensure that malpractice is made public. “Consumers need more transparency, not less,” Pop concluded.
