Heads of Food Safety Agencies

The EU Member State holding the EU Council Presidency also hosts the Heads of Agencies meeting during its term.

HoA - Heads of Food Safety Agencies

Our Mission

The Heads of the National Agencies (HoA) is a forum of the most senior level of management of national agencies in Europe dealing with food safety, animal health and welfare, plant health and consumer protection. Together, they aim to:

  • Strengthen relationships, enable and promote collaboration and networking at strategic and operational level between competent authorities of participating countries
  • Exchange information, increase knowledge and adopt best practices:
    • on ensuring implementation and enforcing European legislation as well as international and national rules by the business operators in the participating countries,
    • on ensuring safety by regular control, inspection, sampling and analysis,
    • for the management of Agencies, including operational challenges, improvement of efficiency and effectiveness
  • Meet evolving needs by identifying important drivers and common risks, risk assessment and risk management needs on topics of mutual interest and/or EU relevance