What are the tasks of the BAES?
The Federal Office for Food Safety was founded as an authority by the GESG. The main tasks are the approval and certification as well as control and monitoring of the placing on the market of agricultural inputs in accordance with the Seed Act, the Plant Material Act, the Plant Variety Protection Act, the Plant Protection Products Act, the Plant Protection Act, the Feedstuffs Act, the Fertilizer Act and the Marketing Standards Act, as well as the monitoring of testing laboratories in accordance with § 52 of the Chemicals Act and applicable legal bases for illegal fishing. BAES plays the role of risk manager. This means that facts from the aforementioned materials (see laws) are assessed on the basis of scientific expert opinions for the protection of humans, animals and plants and are submitted to official decisions. Decisions are made objectively and independently.
Technical Notifications
- 25July2024
Plant protection products: New features for eServices applicants
With its eServices, the BAES offers applicants the opportunity to simplify communication for authorization, modification and renewal procedures for plant protection products as well as for active substance approvals and renewals.
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- 19July2024
Seeds: Innovations in testing for freedom from genetic engineering
Technical details on alternative screening elements to prevent contamination of seeds with GMOs (genetically modified organisms) have been added to the "GMO-free seed" section.
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- 17July2024
Fertilizers: Approvals in accordance with Section 9a of the Fertilizer Act 1994 are still valid until 1 January 2025
The amended Fertilizer Act 2021 (DMG 2021) has been in force since 1.10.2021 and contains, among other things, a regulation on the time limit for approvals. Fertilizers, soil additives, growing media and plant aids approved for an indefinite period may only be placed on the market until 1 January 2025 or require a new application for approval.
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- 15July2024
BAES on ACA report: Plant protection products are comprehensively tested and safe in Austria
The strict separation of scientific risk assessment and legal risk management guarantees that, on the one hand, effective means of combating plant pests are available to agriculture and, on the other, that food safety and environmental protection are guaranteed.
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- 14February2024
Extract from the Austrian Descriptive Variety List 2024 online!
The "Extract from the Austrian Descriptive List of Varieties" (Series 10) will neither be printed nor sent out from this year onwards.
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- 08January2024
Plant protection products: New HRAC classification
Active ingredients of plant protection products are classified according to their mechanism of action and clearly assigned with the help of codes. The…
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- 01December2023
BAES priority checks on feed imports from Ukraine
No direct imports from Ukraine were found in the current priority checks on maize imports from Ukraine. The tests for pesticide active ingredients and GMOs also revealed no anomalies.
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- 28November2023
Amendment of the EU regulation on marketing standards for eggs
Amendment of Regulation (EU) No. 1308/2013 with regard to marketing standards for eggs and repeal of Regulation (EC) No. 589/2008. The new EU regulations come into force on 28.11.2023.
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- 24November2023
Amendment of the EU regulations on marketing standards for the fruit and vegetables sector, certain processed fruit and vegetables and the banana sector
Regulations (EU) No. 543/2011 and (EU) No. 1333/2011 have been replaced by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2430.
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- 17July2023
Amendment of the marketing standards control regulation
This amendment reduces the number of import and export offices for the marketing standards sector to 14 throughout Austria.
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