In the future, the Federal Office for Food Safety (BAES) and the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) will contribute their expertise regarding food safety and environmental protection to an Austrian taskforce to combat environmental crime. Recently, ministries and authorities signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Expert:in Taskforce NEST. The National Environmental Security Taskforce - NEST for short - is a network of authorities that will fight environmental crime in a more targeted manner through coordinated cooperation.
BAES Director Thomas Kickinger sees a win-win situation for all parties involved, because cases of environmental crime or fraud can be handled holistically as a result: "The synergies generated by this lead to the avoidance of duplication and thus to increased effectiveness of controls." AGES Managing Director Anton Reinl welcomes the establishment of the NEST working group, "as it is intended to ensure the targeted combating of fraud in the food chain as well."
In addition to environmental crime areas such as illegal treatment, dumping, storage and transport of hazardous and non-hazardous waste or placing on the market of wood and wood products from illegal logging, the cooperation partners are particularly working on the topics of food harmful to health due to fraudulent practices during production or placing on the market or environmental hazards due to soil, air and water contamination - one of the core competences of the experts from BAES and AGES.
We are already closely networked with international crime-fighting authorities, e.g. in OPSON, a global operation to combat deceptive and fraudulent practices in the food sector, or in international operations against the smuggling of the protected European glass eel and against the import and trade in illegal plant protection products.