Government Decision No. HG692/2025 validating the Specific Hygiene Requirements applicable to food of animal origin.

This Government Decision approves specific hygiene requirements applicable to foodstuffs of animal origin. It explicitly aligns national practice with EU instruments on the matter. The text sets detailed, product-specific hygiene rules for multiple categories (meat of various species, slaughterhouse design and operation, handling of live animals and transport, meat cutting/boning, emergency slaughter, wild game, poultry and lagomorphs, bivalve molluscs, fishery products, raw milk/colostrum/dairy products, eggs, frog legs and snails, processed products such as minced meat and mechanically separated meat, fats, gelatin and collagen production). It prescribes marking/identification, documentation and temperature requirements, microbiological and chemical limits, sampling and testing procedures, HACCP-based controls, and provisions governing imports, certification and traceability. Specific technical annexes address e.g., calcium limits in mechanically separated meat and use/monitoring of recycled hot water for carcass treatment. Authority and enforcement responsibilities are assigned to the competent national bodies (notably the National Agency for Food Safety and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry). The Decision provides transitional, derogation and national measures options (including provisions for small producers), references authorizing orders and technical implementing measures, and requires integration of the requirements into HACCP procedures. It also mandates documentation, record-keeping and inspection/testing regimes and conditions for authorization/registration of relevant units.