“There is order on the food market and producers, processors and distributors are striving to adhere to food safety regulations”, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas said on Hungarian M1 television’s morning show and Kossuth Radio’s “180 Minutes” programme today, announcing the results of seasonal food safety checks by the National Food Chain Safety Office (NFCSO).
The Minister said that the countrywide operation began on 20 May and lasted a month, during which time the NFCSO coordinated 4700 checks, analysed 20 thousand lots of food and issued 161 fines for a total of 15.6 million forints. As Mr. Fazekas emphasised, checks are performed regularly in the interests of consumers, and the authorities pay particular attention to the increased food trade volumes in the periods before Christmas and Easter. The aim of the NFCSO drives is to protect consumers from suspect, bad quality foods of unknown origin.
Mr. Fazekas said that untraceable and suspect foods of unknown origin discovered during the recent tests had been removed from circulation and destroyed in a biogas production plant. The Minster mentioned that according to the NFCSO report fewer Hungarian foods had to be removed from circulation and Hungarian foods are generally safer than imported products. Some food labelling is unsatisfactory, and this is something that must be given more emphasis; nothing can replace conscious consumer behaviour, Mr. Fazekas noted.
During the spring food chain checks, supervisors paid particular attention to the production and distribution of marinated, smoked, raw and cooked meat products, eggs, confectionery products, wines and alcoholic beverages, and seasonal fruits and vegetables. Over 2 percent of the 20 thousand lots of Hungarian and foreign foods tested, some 37 tons with a total value of 5 million forints, had to be removed from circulation. The main reasons foods had to be removed from circulation were that they were due their sell by or consume by dates, were of unknown origin or had problems with their labelling.
492 shipments of livestock were also checked, and similarly to previous years no discrepancies were found within this field. 2531 food distributors, 967 catering units and 590 food producers were checked by the NFCSO and officials from various government agencies.