As summer days engulf the country, hot temperatures may threaten safe consumption of drinks and food, may favor quicker decay and easier contamination and may pose threats to nutrition safety. Aware of the risks, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has begun controls throughout the country, with a particular focus on the seaside where the population is swollen by tourists and threats are more persistent, reports the local press (Agon, 29.06.2009).
Controls are examining open and closed markets, as well as restaurants and bars. Parallel to controls for food safety and respect of expiring consumption deadlines, controls are checking if the produce bears labels written in Albanian and thus comprehensible to the consumer. A majority of edible products comes into the Albanian market via importation. But experts from the MoA quoted by Agon believe that almost 80% of imports receive print or stick-on labels in Albanian, while a more poignant problem rises from small-scale imports entering through personal vehicles from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece.
The experts quoted expected an improvement of the food safety situation for this year. Problems that still persist are especially evidenced in ice and ice-cream making and storage and in the open (not boxed) supply of milk and butter, as well as in sale and storage of meat.
Referring to controls on nutrition safety, Telegraf, (30.06.2009) quotes the existence of a particular law on “Public Health and the Sanitary Inspection” (Law 7643 of 2.12.1992) and of a more specific ordinance “On measures taken in the tourist summer season” (Ordinance 82 of 2.05.2007). The daily states that the Sanitary Inspection division (Ministry of Health) has so far inspected 13,430 trading, storing, transporting and producing units. Out of these controls 362 kg of edible products as well as 16,389 liters of refreshing drinks that did not match safety conditions, and representing a commercial value of 1,160,031 Albanian Lek련ALL) or nearly 11,600 US Dollars (USD), were destroyed.
Controls from the Sanitary Inspection division have focused on the running-water supply chain, the refrigeration, the production of ice, expiration dates of edible products, collection and destruction of containments, unpacked sale of products exposed to heat and dust, pesticide risks, etc. The newspaper stresses the need to cooperate with the different inspecting organizations, the Sanitary Inspection division (Ministry of Health), Directories of Agriculture and Food (Ministry of Agriculture), Veterinary Inspectorate of the Municipality, Inspectorate of Environment Protection, Municipal Police, and other possible nutrition safety authorities.
BOXES
Inspections by the Sanitary Inspection division (Ministry of Health)
13,430 units inspected since the beginning of June
400 safety violations addressed regarding non-conforming commercial units
11 fines levied and a number of forced closures
362 kg of inedible products and 16,389 liters of undrinkable beverages destroyed
