Press Release 10.06.2026

foodwatch Files Complaint to EU Ombudswoman Over Commission’s Handling of Food and Feed Safety Omnibus

  • Pesticides
  • politics and law

foodwatch International has filed a formal complaint with the European Ombudswoman against the EU Commission’s handling of the “Food and Feed Safety Omnibus” legislative package. The complaint criticises a serious of procedural shortcomings in the preparation of the omnibus package that could have far-reaching consequences for food safety standards across the EU. The package includes rules on the safety checks of pesticides, the monitoring of their residues, controls on food imports, and regulation to prevent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). 

The high level of health and environmental protection enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) article 191 is at stake. Therefore, the international consumer organisation calls on the Commission to withdraw the current proposal and to suspend inter-institutional negotiations until good administration and essential democratic principles — including a full impact assessment and meaningful public consultation — have been fulfilled.

“The Food and Feed Safety Omnibus opens up ten food safety regulations at once following a parody of consultation and without due impact assessment. The Commission is unable to provide evidence that these changes will not lower health and environmental protection and keeps pressing forward with a package that risks dismantling safeguards, under the cover of bureaucratic simplification. Such a flawed process is neither living up to the EU standards of good administration, nor to basic democratic principles, and should be stopped”, said Natacha Cingotti, Lead for Campaigns Strategies at foodwatch International.

Three procedural failures

foodwatch identifies three procedural failures:

  1. No clear rationale for grouping ten regulations in a single package. Beyond the general impetus to “simplify” the regulatory rules in the food and feed sector, the Commission has not explained why these ten regulatory areas were put together, nor why some were prioritised while others were not (e.g. the regulation on feed additives is included, but not the one on food additives).
  2. Absence of a comprehensive impact assessment. The Commission cited potential savings of up to 1 billion euro annually but failed to publish an impact assessment to support these figures. There is no accompanying information on the potentially far-reaching impacts on public health or the environment. For example, the Commission proposes important changes in existing regulation such as the removal of periodic reauthorisations for pesticides active substances, residue limits for pesticides, and feed additives. When it comes to the rules on BSE monitoring, it is puzzling that the Commission proposed changes on matters still under discussion by the relevant EFSA expert group at the time of publication of its legal proposal. An independent legal opinion commissioned by foodwatch concluded in January 2026 the absence of an impact assessment infringes the principles of proportionality, equal treatment, and legitimate expectations.
  3. Absence of meaningful public consultation and rushed process. The only pre-legislative consultation was a 1.5-page call for evidence with a four-week window, based on vague justifications that numerous requests for legislative changes had been received from stakeholders and companies over the last years. Over 6,440 comments were received; the Commission published its proposals just two months later. A subsequent feedback period was opened after the publication of the legal proposals – supposedly to inform the inter-institutional negotiations. It has been repeatedly extended without explanation, while the Council has already agreed its position on parts of the package.

foodwatch: Omnibus negotiations must stop!

foodwatch is asking the European Ombudswoman to investigate. As long as basic democratic and good administration principles, such as public consultation, transparency, and the conduct of an impact assessment, are not fulfilled, the Commission’s package should be withdrawn and the negotiations with the Parliament and the Council should be suspended. 

The European Ombudswoman already found that the Commission committed maladministration in the context of other Omnibus packages in November 2025 and she gave clear recommendations for action to avoid this situation from repeating again in the future. The handling of the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus unfortunately indicates that the Commission is not adapting its procedures to abide by these recommendations.

Background

The Food and Feed Safety package, published on 16 December 2025, proposes amendments to regulations covering areas as diverse as pesticide authorisations, rules on pesticides residues, biocide assessments, BSE monitoring, feed additives, and border controls on food imports. 

foodwatch wrote to Commission President von der Leyen on 18 December 2025 to raise concerns. Despite reminders, that letter has received no reply.

Sources and additional information