Key achievements in Implementation period 5/24 – 5/27 at 18/05/2025:
COMPONENT I: FOOD SAFETY
During this period, significant efforts were made to enhance food safety knowledge and processes across various stakeholder groups.
Staff involved in food safety controls received training on how to conduct internal audits and gained a deeper understanding of the relevant food safety legislation, particularly concerning food of non-animal origin and composite food (a total of 9 training events were conducted). 122 TCc food business operators benefited from tailored guidance and support in planning and implementing good hygiene practices and hazard analysis (HACCP) systems. Traceability exercises were carried out in 20 selected businesses to improve tracking along the food supply chain. Additional training was delivered to 13 professionals from local chambers of commerce, academia, and the food industry on risks associated with food safety.
Comprehensive technical support was also provided to improve food safety control. This included support for updating monitoring programmes for diseases such as Brucellosis and Tuberculosis, reviewing local legal texts on animal health and food production, including also regarding processed food for alignment with EU legal framework, and assessing laboratory capacity in the TCc. The project also reviewed staffing levels, responsibilities, and existing procedures in relation to the control of non-animal origin food.
Further efforts focused on supporting TCc programmes that monitor zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance, updating the assessment on zoonosis/zoonotic agents and providing recommendations/actions to be implemented to ensure collection of data necessary for monitoring/analysing trend of zoonosis and zoonotic agent and antimicrobial resistance. Draft monitoring plans for diseases such as Avian Influenza and Newcastle disease were developed, along with updates to programmes concerning chemical residues and contaminants in food according to the latest EU legislation and the results of the previous project Implementation Period. The team also contributed to the implementation of the program for control of veterinary medicines use and the implementation of the monitoring programmes for chemical contaminants, residues of pesticides and targeted PDO control program, including collections of samples, analysis of laboratory results, recommendations for further investigation and follow-up actions.
Work continued on developing a long-term integrated control plan comprehensive of all control measures on food, feed, animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products, seeds, etc and risk-based sampling strategies. This included field visits to help assess and categorise farms and food businesses regarding their compliance with the EU aligned food hygiene and food safety standards, particularly in the dairy and meat sectors, and development of procedure for pilot categorisation and upgrading of dairy farms. 11 Meat processing businesses categorised so far, 6 pilot farms were visited for categorisation and 13 food business operators (FBOs) were visited and evaluated for the status of the granted category and required upgrading.
The EU FSP project contributed further to the implementation of controls along the food chain by performing an evaluation of the effectiveness and a verification of the effectiveness of control for animal health and animal identification and registration, including recommendations for improvement.
The milk channelling system developed to facilitate the traceability of raw milk to ensure that the entire chain of production is carried out in accordance with the EU standards and supporting the production of Halloumi/Hellim with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status was further strengthened. Additional farms and food businesses were supported in meeting the required standards: Currently 23 farms are PDO-attested, 4 FBOs are PDO-certified, 48 PDO-applicants farms were evaluated for their eligibility for further PDO certification support and 46 follow-up visits of PDO-certified farms to test the “milk channelling system” were performed. An updated guidelines for PDO-compliant production were published and widely disseminated.
The project helped food businesses improve their hygiene and safety practices. 15 businesses received direct support to develop or upgrade their HACCP plans, 15 to improve record-keeping procedures for traceability, and 3 to implement action plans for improvement.
COMPONENT II: ANIMAL DISEASE CRISIS PREPAREDNESS
Progress was made in preparing for animal disease emergencies. Local legal texts were reviewed and compared to EU animal health legislation, and practical tools were developed to help veterinary and farming professionals to test their preparedness for crisis situations. These included realistic scenarios for handling outbreaks of diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease, Sheep Pox Goat Pox, Avian Influenza, Lumpy Skin Disease, and Peste des Petits Ruminants.
Training materials were prepared to improve awareness and prevention measures at the farm level, covering topics such as hygiene, early detection of disease threats, and biosecurity practices.
CROSS-CUTTING ACTIVITIES
The project’s support for the risk assessment of introduction of major animal diseases into the northern part of Cyprus was initiated. As a result, data collection for update of the Risk assessment report on the introduction of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) and for initiating the Risk assessment report on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Sheep Pox Goat Pox is in progress. This helps ensure that TCc preparedness and response strategies remain evidence-based and up to date.
VISIBILITY and COMMUNICATION
To ensure transparency and engagement, the project team regularly communicated its activities and training events through social media and other channels. A total of 23 informational updates were shared with the public. The updated guidelines for PDO Halloumi/Hellim production were published and made available online.
The project continues to maintain and develop the Food Safety Platform, which serves as a key resource hub for food business operators, local bodies, and the public:
🌐 https://tccfoodsafetyproject.eu