under the influence of some emergencies ( mad cow disease , dioxin in feed ) , there has been a significant development of food laws which led to the enhancement of some normative papers that make up the basis of food security such as the council regulation ( ec ) n. 178 of 28 january 2002 ( european commission , 2002 ) . this last is intended to lay down the general principles and requirements of food law by a series of regulations . more precisely , it has confirmed that food business operators ( fbo ) are the main responsible for the hygienic and healthy production of food and must adopt the most appropriate measures to ensure consumers health and expectations by means of the self - control plan following the principles of hazard analysis and critical control points ( haccp ) . in the present paper , we want to present some critical comments resulting from the activities carried out by the prevention services [ national information system on agriculture ( sian ) and veterinary service ] of the local health service of rome ( asl rm / a ) , italy . we compare them with those acquired from a project of integration concerning the european regulations of the chinese community of prato , carried out by the territorial service of the ausl 4 of prato ( acsa ) . in the period 2007 - 2009 , the veterinary service , in cooperation with the health food and nutrition territorial service of the ausl rm / a , carried out an investigation on the raw fish in japanese restaurants located in the centre of rome ( masotti et al . , 2010 ) . the primary objective was to evaluate the structural , operational and general hygiene of the equipment and the staff , and to assess the freshness of the fish products used and distributed raw . thirty restaurants were inspected : most of them were japanese preparing sushi and sashimi . as for data collection , checklists were arranged individually by the two services , for their investigation , based on the recommendations included in the guidelines of latium region for the implementation of the reg . the activity had several positive effects in terms of the awareness of the issues related to the consumption of raw fish preparations and it resulted in a reduction of non - conformities . still , its most relevant result is the ongoing adoption of the correct procedures for the prevention of anisakis risk by the fbos involved . particularly , the first checks showed a wide use of fresh product not subject to any remediation by freezing . on the contrary , as a result of the prescriptive acts , a greater spread of freezing of the raw material performed on site using correct procedures was detected the following years . as an alternative , the purchase of the product already subject to necessary remediation was registered . therefore , the project can be considered as a successful example of the interaction between official control and fbos , especially given that it has been able to act not only on the mere application of regulatory provisions , but also on the cultural approach in preparing of traditional ethnic foods . in the period 2009 - 2010 , in the province of the ausl 4 in prato , a project was launched , aiming at improving the quality level of the retail outlets managed by the chinese community operators . the project involved all the professionals of the competent authority for food safety of the ausl 4 in prato ( acsa ) ( armani et al . , 2011 ; guidi et al . , the activity involved 24 shops , including 9 supermarkets which sell meat and fish products , 6 supermarkets which sell meat and fish products and other food products , 4 restaurants , 2 stores , 1 street vendor . similarly to the services of asl rm / a , the investigation was carried out by adopting the method used to perform audits , i.e. by customising the checklist for the assessment of health standards in the production , preparation , administration and sale of foodstuffs of plant origin and drink and the haccp checklist official controls . on the whole , the 24 controlled stores showed the following faults : hygienic - sanitary ( 100% of the controlled stores ) ; traceability / labelling of products ( 100% ) ; training of personnel ( 100% ) ; prescriptions not acquitted ( 25% ) . in particular , it was found that the plan for self control is formally present in all the stores , but in 90% of them it is not understood and is disregarded , although the documents have been translated into chinese . during the inspection activities , 91 proceedings were performed , of which : 33 administrative sanctions , 32 prescriptions , 3 administrative seizures , 6 reports of crime , 4 destructions , 3 seizures and 2 temporary closures . at the end of the activity , anyway , a substantial decrease in serious non - conformities and the permanence of not serious non - conformities was recorded . in addition , a marked improvement of the use of labelling in italian language on products was found even if accompanied by a poor traceability of the food . furthermore , the staff and the management training on the european legislation on food safety showed no improvement . the results of these two experiments allow you to make some considerations that can be extended to all kinds of food stores in the area . it has been shown that very few fbos have a thorough knowledge of the regulations on food safety , especially on food production sanitation . when comparing official control and fbos , the difficulties one may come across with and have to take into consideration are to face cultural and linguistic differences . as highlighted , in line with the content of the 2008 report of the ministry of health , the diversification of food production , in relation to the different sectors and the size of the fbo , causes a non - uniform awareness of fbo in the way the application of self - control systems is concerned , in order to ensure the product food safety of . in the evaluation of the inspection activities carried out by the competent authorities , in fact , a high prevalence of non - conformities in the framework of general hygiene prerequisites is confirmed , in the application of the haccp system and in the staff training . therefore , it is vital to provide a general training program , involving the operators in charge of the control and fbo , in order to allow the effective and definitive resolution of the non - compliances , through the proper use of the audit , an instrument introduced by the regulations of the hygiene package and not yet properly used throughout the national country ( italian ministry of health , 2008 ) . indeed , the type of non - conformities detected has highlighted the inadequacy of the role played by the consultants , with regards to the application of the haccp . in an ethnic community , this makes an expert advice highly desirable , which may interact with fbos in a better way from a linguistic viewpoint , and , above all , which is to be a real reference point for the different critical aspects for the fbo . the inadequate application of the self - control systems ( prerequisites of haccp ) is also reflected in the recurrence of non - conformities in the quality control activity of finished food products . as a matter of fact , it was observed that , the obligation for the fbo to have a self - control plan has been envisaged for 16 years . an intervention by the central authority would be desirable , in order to rule the activities of the self - control consultants , considering the possibility to establish an official list of people in charge of the self - control , who are to be certified and trained , as well as the ability to designate people who are not suitable for that activity . the initiatives to provide the consumer with correct information should be encouraged and could be developed directly at the level of food marketing and service , through periodic campaigns reporting on the major food risks .