The Quality Regulation covers all of the food chain including marketing, production and transport of fish and fishery products. The regulation also covers fish and fishery products of foreign origin. Under these rules establishments, production areas and relaying areas must be approved by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority after the Authority has approved if the establishment etc fulfils the rules in the regulation. The Authority allots the establishment a special approval number and keeps a register listing the approved establishments. Approval can be withdrawn if whole or part of the establishment, raw material, or the handling of products no longer satisfies the requirements that are set out in the regulation.
Establishments and freezing vessels must have an approved control system based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point). The control system is regularly revised with the Authority. Landing stations that do not package products for direct sales can have an easier control system.
In addition to the above mentioned regulation there are various other Norwegian constraints that implement EU rules concerning food safety e.g rules implying imports from countries outside of the EU and maximum residue limits of veterinary medicinal products.
National hearings
On 1 January 2006 the EU hygiene package came into force in the EU. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority forwarded national regulations implementing the hygiene package, for a national hearing in July 2005. Regulation on official controls and regulation laying down requirements for feed hygiene were at the same time sent for a national hearing .
Hygiene package
Because of the structure of the EEA system and the dualistic legal system in Norway, the hygiene package must be taken into the EEA agreement before the rules may be implemented directly in Norwegian law. The hygiene package is in large part of a consolidation of the EU rules relating to food safety which Norway already has implemented. Hygiene package has a more horizontal profile compared with the the rules that used to cover spesific sectors.
Norway has under the Norwegian Food Act and the restructuring of administration, made attempts to implement a fjord/farm to fork approach The hygiene package is generally less detailed than the previous EU rules in the food safety area and concentrates on a risk based approach. In addition the hygiene package in general introduces the HACCP system, a system which has already been applied to seafood under the existing Norwegian Quality Regulation.
It should be noted that directive 2002/99, which is also a part of the hygiene package but which came into force much earlier in the EU, is already part of the EEA agreement and implemented in Norwegian law.