Food, feed and veterinary law; setting fees for the performance of inspections

In order to ensure that sufficient financial resources are available to carry out these checks, fees are generally charged for these checks.

Mandatory fees must be charged in the following areas due to European legal requirements (Art. 79 Regulation (EU) 2017/625):

• Official controls in the area of meat production and processing (in slaughterhouses, cutting plants and game processing plants)
• Import controls for foodstuffs
• Official controls for the approval of feed businesses
• Checks that become necessary as a result of a detected infringement.

In principle, the following factors must be taken into account when calculating these mandatory fees (Art. 81 Regulation (EU) 2017/625):

• the cost of wages and salaries of staff - including auxiliary and administrative staff - involved in the performance of official controls, as well as the cost of social security, retirement benefits and insurance for such staff;
• Costs for furnishings and equipment, including maintenance and insurance costs and other ancillary costs;
• Costs for consumables and aids;
• Costs for services that delegated bodies impose on the competent authorities for official duties assigned to these delegated bodies;
• costs of training of staff referred to in point (a), with the exception of vocational training, necessary to obtain the qualification required for recruitment by the competent authorities;
• Costs for travel and the associated daily allowances for staff;
• Costs for sampling and for laboratory analyses, tests and diagnoses charged by official laboratories for these tasks.

According to Article 80 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625, Member States may levy fees for official controls and other official activities in addition to the mandatory fees in order to cover costs incurred, unless this is prohibited by law in individual cases.

No fees are charged if

• these are regular inspections that have led to no or only minor complaints, and
• the charging of fees is not prescribed in special legislation or due to a special need for monitoring. Such legislation that prescribes the charging of fees exists, for example, for inspections in establishments that handle meat.

Fees for certain controls in the area of food, feed and veterinary monitoring must be charged to cover costs. Legal requirements for the charging of fees are contained in particular in Regulation (EU) 2017/625 as well as the Cost Act and the Schedule of Costs (see "Legal bases").

The Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection has also drawn up a guideline (see "Legal basis" ) to assist with the application of the schedule of costs. More detailed specifications regarding the charging of fees can be found in this guide.

• This sets out how the fees are to be set within the framework in accordance with Community law and Bavarian cost law. In this context, the eligible cost components are also listed.
• In addition, the guide also contains basic information on the obligation to pay the costs of inspections in the area of food and feed and veterinary law.

Please refer to the attachment with the list of "Fees for ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections" under Forms.

• Fees for ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection

• Costs Act (KG)
• Guide to the application of Lfd. Nos. 7.IX.9/to 7.IX.14/ of the Schedule of Costs
• Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products
• Ordinance on the Enactment of the Schedule of Costs under the Costs Act (Kostenverzeichnis - KVz)