The core tasks of food safety oversight and consumer protection are:
- Protecting people from health hazards, as well as from misleading and deceptive practices involving food and products of animal and non-animal origin, tobacco products, cosmetics, and consumer goods treated as food (such as items that come into direct contact with the body or food)
- On-site inspections to monitor compliance with food law regulations in businesses where food or items treated as food are produced, handled, or
placed on the market. This applies to both hygiene regulations and labeling requirements, such as those for additives and allergens.
- Enforcement of violations of relevant food safety laws
- Collection of product samples in routine cases and in cases of suspicion for testing by the laboratories of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Investigation Office regarding, for example, marketability, suitability for consumption, composition, and labeling
- Receiving consumer complaints in the food sector
- Monitoring of retail sales of over-the-counter medications
Animal welfare and animal disease control
For the state capital of Mainz, the Mainz-Bingen District Administration, with its headquarters in Ingelheim (Konrad-Adenauer-Straße 34, 55218 Ingelheim), is responsible.
The food inspection department located there, however, is responsible for the above-mentioned tasks related to the enforcement of food law exclusively and only for the territory of the Mainz-Bingen district, excluding the city of Mainz.
