1.Food and feed business operators, or organisations representing such operators, may establish control programmes, covering, as far as possible, all stages of production, processing and distribution.
2.If they wish their control programmes to form part of a national control programme, food and feed business operators, or their representative organisations, shall submit their control programmes, and any amendments thereto, to the competent authority of the Member State in which they are located for approval. If the operations concerned take place in different Member States, the programmes shall be approved separately for each Member State.
3.The competent authority may approve control programmes submitted pursuant to paragraph 2 only if it is satisfied that the control programmes comply with the relevant requirements set out in Annex II and with the objectives of the relevant national control programme.
4.Member States shall maintain up-to-date lists of approved control programmes of food and feed business operators or their representative organisations. The lists shall be made available to the Commission upon request.
5.Food and feed business operators or their representative organisations shall communicate regularly the results of their control programmes to the competent authorities.