Deputies and senators debate the regulation of the Self-Control Law

The Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA), Action Consultoria, the Brazilian Institute of Agro Regulation and Sustainability and Oliveira Souza Advogados organized the seminar "Agricultural Self-Control: What changes with Law No. 14.515/2022" this Wednesday (08) , in the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasília.

The meeting served to discuss the regulation of the Self-Control Law and was attended by different actors who carry out activities within the scope of Agricultural Defense inspection. The debates presented themes such as: “The origin and relevance of the Law for the agricultural sector” and “News in the Law in regulatory and legal terms”. With the promulgation of Law No. 14.515, of December 29, 2022, the Brazilian agricultural sector gained new regulations for the sanitary self-control of products of animal and vegetable origin.

The new legislation modernizes and improves sanitary control practices throughout the agricultural production chain, allowing producers and companies themselves to have greater responsibility in guaranteeing the quality and safety of food.

The president of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA), deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), opened the event. The parliamentarian reinforced that self-control is an extremely important law that tends, once regulated, to transform the reality of the countryside, of producers, of the development of agroindustry, and helps to reduce bureaucracy in the entire production system.

“A project that meets the requests of entities, inspectors, representatives of agriculture and agroindustry is made by many hands. With the support of senator Tereza Cristina, with the coordination of deputy and vice-president of the FPA for the southeast region Domingos Sávio, so that it could be approved in the Chamber and the Senate”.

Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS), was Minister of Agriculture during the proposal's progress in Congress. She considered that the Self-Control Law came to “reduce bureaucracy and make life easier for business people without losing the security that health issues require”.

The vice-president of the FPA, senator Zequinha Marinho (PL-PA), considered that the project focuses on the quality process and suitability of the product. ““It leads the producer to provide information that is required in any production process.”

With the new law, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) becomes responsible for regulating and monitoring agricultural self-control, instead of directly carrying out health inspections at establishments.

Federal deputy Domingos Sávio (PL-MG) was rapporteur for the Bill in the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Supply and Rural Development (CAPADR), of the Chamber of Deputies. He reinforces that the proposal follows the growth of the sector in the country, and that inspection should not stop happening. “It is not self-regulation as many were untruely spreading, to try to say that the law could bring some risk to health defense, quite the contrary, the ministry and health defense bodies, states and municipalities continue to have the authority to inspect to guarantee products of animal and vegetable origin and inputs.” Senator Luís Carlos Heinze and the deputy (PP-RS) who was rapporteur of the proposal in the senate and deputy Alceu Moreira (MDB-RS) also participated in the meeting.

How the Law works

Producers and companies will be able to adopt the Health Self-Control System, which consists of implementing a set of preventive and corrective measures to guarantee the quality and safety of the food produced. For deputy Evair de Melo (PP-ES), the Self-Control Law generates speed in the production process, without leaving aside the issue of health safety and the reduction of production costs. “This advance in the issue of self-control may be the freedom we wanted. Bureaucracy leads to setbacks and increased costs.”

The Federal Senate's Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Committee approved the Self-Control Law in June last year.