Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/179 of 31 January 2025 on the collection and transmission of molecular analytical data within the frame of epidemiological investigations of food-borne outbreaks in accordance with Directive 2003/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

• CELEX: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/179
• Articles: 3

Article 1 Collection and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of isolates of food-borne pathogens associated with food-borne outbreaks

1.   The competent authority responsible for the investigation of food-borne outbreaks pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 2003/99/EC shall collect, without undue delay, isolates of Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes , Escherichia coli , Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli , where those pathogens are associated or suspected to be associated with a food-borne outbreak, based on the available analytical or epidemiological information, in the Member State of that competent authority or in another Member State and they were derived from samples taken from the suspected food, animals, feed or the related environment during foodborne outbreak investigations.

2.   The competent authority shall carry out WGS on at least one isolate of each serovar, biotype or molecular type of the collected isolates referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article in an official laboratory which is referred to in Article 37 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council  ( 5 ) and which is accredited for this method according to ISO 17025.

3.   Where available, food and feed business operators shall submit to the competent authority, upon its request, the isolates of the pathogens referred to in paragraph 1 and the related results from WGS from their own investigations when associated or suspected to be associated with an outbreak, together with the associated data referred to in Article 2(2).

Article 2 Transmission of the results from the WGS

1.   The competent authority referred to in Article 1 shall transmit, without undue delay, to the Authority the results of the WGS carried out on the isolates of Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes , Escherichia coli , Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli , referred to in Article 1(1).

2.   The data referred to in paragraph 1 shall be accompanied by the following associated data:

(a)

a unique reference number of the genome sequence of the isolate from which the sequence has been generated;

(b)

a unique reference number of the sample from which the pathogen has been isolated;

(c)

the pathogen species;

(d)

the description of the food, animal species, feed or environment the isolate was derived from;

(e)

the date of sampling;

(f)

the Member State of sampling;

(g)

if notified in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), the reference to the notification associated with the isolate;

(h)

a unique reference number of the foodborne outbreak investigated at national level.

Article 3 Entry into force and date of application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .

It shall apply from 23 August 2026.