Since the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, regulatory bodies, including the State Service for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, have been prohibited from conducting business inspections. However, as of today, planned and unplanned state market supervision and control activities have been partially resumed.
In view of the above, the relevance of issues regarding the procedure for conducting inspections, the registration of their results, and the specifics of eliminating identified violations has once again increased.
So let's consider the concept of a prescription as one of the regulatory documents of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, as well as how to correctly report on its implementation.
Based on the results of the inspection, the inspector of the State Service for Food and Consumer Protection, in addition to the act with the recorded violations, may additionally draw up a prescription, order or other administrative document regarding the need to take certain measures to stop the identified violations.
According to Part 8 of Article 7 Law of Ukraine "On the Basic Principles of State Supervision (Control) in the Sphere of Economic Activity" (hereinafter referred to as the Law) an order is a written requirement of an official of the state supervision (control) body to a business entity to eliminate violations of the requirements of the law, which must be fulfilled within a specified time frame.
The regulation does not directly provide for the application of sanctions. However, if a business entity fails to comply with the requirements of such a regulation or fails to comply with them in full or untimely, a fine will be imposed on it.
In its regulations, the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection may oblige violators to take various measures. For example, to ensure:
- establishing a food traceability system;
- maintaining documentation on accounting for food products entering and leaving the facility;
- drawing up cleaning schedules and instructions; conducting laboratory tests of water used in the production of food products (in the technological process and/or as an ingredient) for compliance with the requirements established for drinking water;
- control of temperature and humidity in a room for storing food products, etc.
After receiving an order, it is important not only to comply with it, but also to properly notify the regulatory authority of such compliance.
The main requirement that must be met when notifying is to send an official letter indicating the number and date of the order, the violations that needed to be corrected, and a statement of the fact that they were eliminated, along with the provision of supporting documents. The letter and its attachments must be sent within the deadline and to the address specified in the instruction, along with a description of the attachment to the valuable letter, which should display a detailed list of all documents sent. |
The fact of proper and timely notification of the State Service for Food and Consumer Protection does not mean that the inspector will not arrive at the business entity for an unscheduled inspection of the implementation of the prescription.
Such right of the inspector is provided for in paragraph 5, part 1, article 6 of the Law, according to which the basis for carrying out unscheduled measures is verification of the implementation by the business entity of regulations, orders or other administrative documents on the elimination of violations of the requirements of the legislation, issued based on the results of the previous measure by the state supervision (control) body.
After the State Service for Food and Consumer Protection of Ukraine detects violations, businesses are recommended to ensure compliance with the requirements of the law not only during the implementation of the prescription, but also throughout the conduct of economic activities, since an unscheduled inspection of the implementation of the prescription is possible at any time.
The original article was published in the journal Management quality.
