OFFICIAL CONTROL OF REMOTE TRADE IN FOODSTUFFS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19629603Keywords:
food safety, official controls, remote trade, electronic distribution, food business operatorsAbstract
With the growing global population and the food and health crises of recent decades, ensuring sufficient and safe food resources is becoming increasingly important. In the European Union, the legislation in the field of agri-food chain management provides an effective and harmonized legal framework that lays down the requirements for raw materials and products at each stage of production, processing and trade, in accordance with the „from farm to fork” concept. At the same time, the consequences of Covid 19 for the food industry and public health, as well as modern trends in digitalization in all spheres of society, have led to new challenges in ensuring safety guarantees through the introduction of remote food trade. This study investigates the devel-opment and intensity of food e-commerce in one administrative region in the country for the period 2020-2024. Results showed a total of 33 food business operators registered for remote trade in the region, with plant-origin foods representing the most frequently offered category, particularly in 2021 and 2023. Several catego-ries like products of animal origin, plan origin, cooked meals and food supplements were offered through a variety of online channels – social media (15.15% of the distribution chain), couriers (12.12%), electronic applications (15.15%) and company`s own website being the most utilized channel (45.45%) during the inves-tigated period. An emphasis is made on the official control procedures of such business operators, indicating the scope of sanctions imposed in case of established violations that pose a risk to product safety. The research fills a gap in empirical data on regional implementation of official controls over e-commerce in foodstuffs and provides practical insights for improving risk-based monitoring and consumer protection.
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