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Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet)

Mattilsynet is Norway's national food safety and animal health authority, set up in 2003 and operating from 2004 by merging earlier agriculture, animal health, food control and seafood inspection bodies; it reports to three ministries and has its head office in Oslo. In prion disease it is the competent authority that enforces Norway's TSE regulation, which implements the EU TSE Regulation 999/2001 through the EEA Agreement, and the regulator behind Norway's chronic wasting disease (CWD, skrantesjuke) measures since the first European case in 2016. It orders and pays for national CWD surveillance carried out by the Norwegian Veterinary Institute and NINA, receives research-based advice from the institute, and has requested VKM risk assessments of CWD, including on the risk to humans. Animal health side only; this entry is information only, not medical or veterinary advice.

Key facts

  • Mattilsynet was established in 2003 and took over from 2004 the work of the Norwegian Agricultural Inspection Service, the Animal Health Authority, the Food Control Authority, municipal food inspection offices and the seafood inspection of the Directorate of Fisheries.
  • It answers to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health and Care Services; it had over 1,200 staff in 2025 and in 2025 replaced its regional structure with four functional inspection divisions.
  • Norway's TSE regulation of 30 March 2004 implements Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 through the EEA Agreement; Mattilsynet supervises compliance, takes implementing decisions and can order decontamination, closure, quarantine and coercive fines. The regulation was last amended on 23 March 2026.
  • Mattilsynet's CWD page says two forms have been found in Norway: classical CWD in wild reindeer in Nordfjella and on Hardangervidda, and atypical CWD in moose. CWD is on national list 2, and suspected or confirmed cases in animals must be reported to Mattilsynet at once.
  • On human risk, Mattilsynet says there is no documented transmission to humans despite many years of CWD in the USA, but it still advises against eating meat from infected animals.
  • The CWD spread regulation of 11 July 2016, made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, requires a Mattilsynet permit to move live reindeer between counties, bans most movement of other live cervids, bans feed and salt licks for wild cervids, and requires reporting of sick or dead cervids to the local Mattilsynet office. Its latest amendment is dated 11 December 2023.
  • The CWD zone regulation of 12 June 2017 defines Nordfjella and Hardangervidda zones with bans on moving live cervids, carcass parts and plant material out of the zones and on outdoor salt for grazing animals. Within the zones Mattilsynet can order culling and sampling and fence salt licks without landowner consent; the current version dates from 9 June 2021.
  • Mattilsynet and the Norwegian Environment Agency commissioned the 2016 and 2017 CWD survey carried out by the Norwegian Veterinary Institute and NINA.
  • In the 2025 survey programme, which Mattilsynet orders and pays for, 11,612 cervids were tested and atypical CWD was found in three old female moose; the authority judged CWD not common in Norwegian cervids but likely still present in a few wild reindeer on Hardangervidda (search excerpt). The Veterinary Institute's programme page gives the same 2025 total and three moose cases.
  • The Veterinary Institute describes itself as giving research-based advice to the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.
  • At the joint request of the Environment Agency and Mattilsynet, VKM concluded in March 2017 that CWD would keep spreading without comprehensive measures and recommended culling the Nordfjella reindeer population and leaving the area fallow for at least five years.
  • At Mattilsynet's request, VKM concluded in June 2021 that the risk of human illness from handling or eating meat from CWD-infected cervids is very low, recommended limiting human exposure and monitoring human prion disease, and noted that Norway has no reliable data on sporadic human prion disease incidence.

Timeline

  1. 2004Mattilsynet takes over the functions of its predecessor agencies (set up in 2003).
  2. 2004Norwegian TSE regulation made, implementing EU Regulation 999/2001, with Mattilsynet as supervising authority.
  3. 2016CWD spread regulation adopted on 11 July 2016, months after the first European case in a Nordfjella reindeer.
  4. 201617 Mattilsynet and the Environment Agency commission the national CWD survey from the Veterinary Institute and NINA.
  5. 2017VKM Report 2017:9 on eradication measures, requested jointly with the Environment Agency.
  6. 2017CWD zone regulation adopted on 12 June 2017.
  7. 2021VKM Report 2021:08 on CWD and risk to humans published at Mattilsynet's request; zone regulation amended on 9 June 2021.
  8. 2023CWD spread regulation amended on 11 December 2023.
  9. 2025Mattilsynet's survey programme tests 11,612 cervids and finds three atypical CWD cases in moose.
  10. 2026TSE regulation amended on 23 March 2026.
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