Government Decision No. HG741/2025 validating the Quality Requirements for bakery products and pasta.

This Government Decision approves binding Quality Requirements for bakery products and pasta intended for human consumption. It is regarding food products and is closely linked to the national framework on food hygiene and safety. The text defines its scope by reference to specific tariff positions in the Combined Nomenclature of goods and excludes products made in households for own consumption and goods merely in transit or temporarily stored. It provides an extensive set of definitions for types of dough, bakery products (including national products and gluten-free variants), pasta categories, and frozen semi-finished products, which underpin the technical and regulatory classifications used throughout the annexes. The Decision classifies bakery products, gluten-free bakery products, frozen semi-finished bakery products, and pasta (including gluten-free pasta) according to flour type, baking method, product state (fresh or frozen), presence of fillings, shape, length, manufacturing method, and quality class. It then establishes minimum quality requirements, assigning primary responsibility for safety and quality to producers and importers across the entire food chain. Operators must apply HACCP-based procedures or good hygiene practices, maintain traceability records, and have withdrawal/recall procedures for non-compliant products. The Decision sets requirements for premises, equipment and materials in contact with food, potable water quality, exclusive use of iodized salt in bakery production, storage conditions (temperature and relative humidity by product category), and determination of shelf life by producers in line with food safety legislation. It also mandates that raw materials’ safety be certified, that contaminants do not exceed maximum levels set in a separate sanitary regulation, that microbiological criteria in Annex 3 be met, and that trans-fat content in bakery products respect national limits. Specific provisions regulate the fortification of bakery products with iron and folic acid using fortified flour. The act further regulates auxiliary materials, packaging, labelling and transport. Bakery products and pasta must generally be marketed prepacked, with a limited exception for products baked and sold in-store under specified sanitary conditions. The use of food additives, flavourings and flavouring ingredients must comply with dedicated sanitary regulations, and packaging materials must conform to national rules on food-contact materials, plastics and regenerated cellulose film. Transport must be carried out only with sanitary-veterinary authorized vehicles that preserve the nutritional, physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics and protect products from contamination, pests, weather and sunlight, and co-transport with non-food or strongly odorous products is prohibited. Three detailed annexes specify organoleptic indicators, physico-chemical parameters (including moisture, acidity, porosity, sugar, fat, gluten content, mechanical resistance, and defect tolerances) and microbiological criteria, as well as sampling plans and corrective actions, which serve as the technical standards for enforcement by the National Food Safety Agency.