AUDIT AND QUALITY CONTROL OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN EU COUNTRIES AND THE WORLD

The article examines regulatory legal acts and other documents and literary sources regarding state control of food safety and quality in Great Britain, Germany, France, the USA and Japan. The health of every nation largely depends on the quality and safety of food products. In any country, at the state level, requirements for product safety and quality are regulated and their compliance is ensured. One of the methods of such provision is state control. The article analyzes the practices of controlling the quality and safety of food products in the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan. It was revealed that there are both common and special rules in the practice of controlling the quality and safety of food products in the studied countries. In all countries, control over the quality and safety of food products is carried out by state bodies. In all countries, during control, special attention is paid to the reliability of product labeling. Improper labeling entails banning the sale of products, removal from circulation or destruction of particularly dangerous products, and even criminal liability in France and the USA. The main responsibility for dangerous food products in all countries is borne by the manufacturers or suppliers of the products who put them into circulation. In the USA and Japan, information about the presence of allergens in a food product must be included in the labeling. In the USA, in order for the manufacturer's products to be able to be supplied for a government order, the enterprise must implement a quality management system in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001, and in Japan, in order to obtain a permit for the manufacture of food products, it is necessary to prove that proper sanitary and hygienic control is ensured by implementing HACCP system. In Germany, Great Britain, and Japan, quality and safety control is entrusted to local self-government bodies. In Germany, there is a product safety monitoring program throughout the territory, which makes it possible to monitor the appearance of dangerous products on the market, as well as to check the effectiveness of the established MPC of dangerous substances. The presence of "passports" for ready-made food products is checked only in France, although such a document is mandatory in EU countries. In France and Japan, exceptional importance is attached to the education of schoolchildren on food safety issues.