Analysis of information on food chain in Europe and Piedmont region, Italy

Food chain information (FCI) is an innovation of the new European regulation. Its purpose is to enhance the concept of food security. FCI includes specifications such as: health status, information on treatments and diseases, analytical reports on control plans, zoonoses or environmental contaminants, production performance, etc. The aim of this article is to compare the different European guidelines and analyse the situation in Piedmont in order to assess potential problems and propose solutions. European guidelines are similar one another, but they have been tailored to the epidemiological situations of each state. Except for Spain and Germany, FCI models are different for each species and the poultry sector is the most detailed. Unfortunately, Italy has not provided guidelines yet, and this has generated considerable differences. Overall, the number of FCI models with incomplete information is the largest group compared to the models not completed for each entry. The main deficiencies are related to pharmacological treatments. The health status of the farm is listed consistently regarding the compulsory eradication plans, but other national voluntary or accreditation plans are rarely mentioned. The situation is similar in other European countries. In conclusion, FCI is an effective tool if applied with consistency and reason. Only in this way the collection of data will be effective and representative of the food chain.