Establishing new food safety approach in EU accessing countries – Croatian challenges and opportunities

One of the basic goals of the Croatian agricultural policy is to enable consumers the access to the adequate and stable food offer that complies with their requirements, especially regarding food safety. Croatian National Food Safety Strategy, based on new EU food safety approach, is currently in the phase of discussing drafted material. Official food safety framework is being redesigned in the aim to improve effectiveness by introducing the process of risk analyses. Coordination and cooperation between the competent authorities involved in food safety issue is becoming more intensive due to the start of negotiation process with EU. Personnel and institutions involved in food safety control are, through pre-accession programs, increasing their knowledge and abilities. Such harmonization of approaches and standards within all the EU member countries is required in order to guarantee same protection to all consumers. The paper discusses challenges and opportunities that Croatia is facing during the EU pre-accession period.