In Albania food is dangerous, including Fast Foods

The head of this institution, Agim Ismaili, said that recent reports of tons of whole expired food are reflections of routine work, while having influenced them to increase public sensitivity to make denouncing, but also of businesses to take measures to improve.

September and October, according to him, will focus fast-foods and service units around schools, while stressing that it is important for products to be bought with labels and coupons, as it is only possible to trace the backbone to food safety.

Recently, there has been a series of publications regarding Akak's land shares that have resulted in the seizure of significant amounts of products that do not meet legal criteria. Is this a routine audit of AQU, or are we ahead of a specific action?

National Food Authority has only respected the initial plan approved for annual controls, always having risk orientation. This plan has also been implemented in the past but has yielded no results, since controls have been formal and left no trace anywhere.

The AQU has not done its duty. What we are doing is simply respecting the existing legal framework. According to the database, controls have been established for subjects, given other indicators, such as the type of activity or activity they have.

By implementing the same regulatory acts, we improved some work documents, such as listings with the aim of making them efficient and all those who are encountered in violations are punished, as the law predicts. Those who have minor offenses are warned and so forth according to the conclusion. Businesses with primary risk, such as meat shops, slaughterhouses, bajo, chemical waste importers and agricultural pharmacies were announced through a letter, for what AKK would control in their environments, enabling them to reflect and meet the necessary requirements.

We have informed them of the sins we most often face, we have sent them a list of requests, so that they can be self - controlled, and we have finally let them know the consequences. We have found on the ground that there are businesses that have seriously invested in guaranteeing standards and quality, just as we have faced cases where subjects, by failing to meet the conditions, have decided to shut down the activity, voluntarily and others found in violations, we have closed them. The new approach to self - control allows us to inspect remote operators according to activity, group them, and, in turn, to have the moral right to control in the field, after the warning.

Despite these, I must stress that the main pillar in food safety is the tracking of products. This means that anyone who produces, transports or trades, has to keep full data on any raw materials supply and any distribution of the final product.

Only the final consumer is expelled here. Tracking is a very important provision for ensuring food safety, and the lawmaker in 2008, when passing the Law on Food on Passive provisions, ordered the government's legal and legal acts for food detection to be adopted within a year from law enforcement. In fact, by 2008, the investigation decision was adopted only in 2015 and was implemented in late 2017 and in 2018.

Basically, what was the focus of the checks, because there were other than the amount of food blocked, even a bunch of restaurants?

The first remain the meat and dairy units, respecting the risk. But there has been no shortage of checks, even in restaurants. What meets in Albania is a contrast between very luxurious restaurants and restaurants and mensa in the peripheral areas, which are far from being in food safety standards. We've announced these checks and noticed that this has had a positive effect on the public as it has on the expired products, where the quantities are high. Such a situation has also affected businesses that have become aware of and the amount of products they themselves report that you are out of consumption time has increased. For example, during the summer season, we have blocked 106 tonnes of food, while businesses themselves have voluntarily announced over 200 tonnes. These products are destroyed at the cost of business itself, but under the supervision of the AKA.

There are proposals that the punitive part should be revised, perhaps even making interference in the Penal Code. How do you judge this?

In fact, we have developments as far as criminal responses are concerned. We like AKU have made over 60 criminal charges for producing dangerous goods and producing and selling goods illegally. For the first one, we have concluded that the provision cannot be punished because it conditions the confirmation of the work with the coming of a very serious consequence, accompanied by a report of 9 days. But these cases, when we catch the manufacturer, the people who may have consumed the product, not necessarily the consequences are immediate. And for illegal production of goods, we have led them into pursuit for senbilization.

In the world, food safety is taken seriously. In California, for example, there are Penal Food Codes, and Italy criminalizes food crime with Switzerland. We also think it needs a change in the Penal Code and we're working. We've been working on food fraud for a while. The Penal Code has no detailed prediction, while it is clear to the general public and anyone that people, over the years, have bought and paid a certain product and received something else entirely. For example, they have paid for butter and obtained palm oil. The law clearly stipulates that natural - based products cannot be replaced by other components.

IS there any modern laboratory where he can perform tests in the function of better control and increased food security?

The analysis of products is endless and related to quality indicators. We have seven labs today, and I do. SW, which is equipped with the right human capacities, but there is naturally room for further improvement and increased range of tests to provide more scientific answers. Currently, a project with the European Union's support for the laboratory, which has been under respect for phases, is delayed but has already received greater attention.

What will be the markets or sectors where the AkU's next focus will be?

As we are in September-October, when schools and universities open, our focus will be fast-foods and every service and trade unit for food products around these institutions. We did this action six to seven months ago, and this time we're clear about how we're going to proceed.

Do you think he should be careful about how the situation is transmitted to the public about the food security?

For good reason, we have to say that in recent months, the AQU action has been forwarded to the media in any direction. We chose to do this to accommodate the public and I think it has proved effective, as we notice that the number of charges of concrete cases or doubts has increased. This makes us optimistic, for we feel that the public has an important role in this food safety challenge. The public should refuse to buy goods without labels and tax coupons.

Second, denouncing cases of wrongdoing. I mentioned the tax coupon, not to call for fiscalization, because it has other institutions to point out that a tax - based product is probably investigative and likely safe, while a non-retainable product is not traced and is not safe. I also want to underline something about the label, which is a very important issue, but it doesn't pay attention. This is changing lately.

The number of labels required for approval has doubled. This in my view is read only as a business awareness, to take measures also on the labeling process, because products, in fact, are not all new in the market, but a good part are existing, but they are traded without a label.