Since 7 June, Directorate for Food Safety and Phytosanitary Affairs has prevented 12 unsafe shipments of various types of food (vegetables, fruits, food for children, food for animals, juices, spices) from entering the market, the directorate announced.
According to Dnevne Novine, more than 40 tonnes of lemon, watermelon, peaches and peppers have been returned from the border crossings, because they contained much higher amounts of pesticides than allowed.
The pesticides concentration in lemons was even 16 times higher than allowed.
In addition to these foods, relevant institutions returned shipments of baby foods, juices and animal food. The countries the trucks with products full of pesticides were sent from have been notified in accordance with the principles of international trade.
These examples show that control on food at border crossing points was raised to maximum as the head and the deputy head of the directorate, Vesna Dakovic and Biljana Blecic, said in recent interviews with DN.
In addition to the border checkpoints, the control is enhanced at the domestic market as well. Random samples are being taken in mega stores, in markets and fast food restaurants.
The directorate will regularly inform the public about results of the analysis.
“In the peak of the season, we will perform checks by sampling food, taking swabs from employees’ hands and working surfaces for food preparation. And whenever we find an irregularity which is seen as a potential danger, we will undertake the most repressive measures, including prohibiting those facilities from performing its operations,” Blecic said then.
Dakovic and Blecic said that citizens should not be concerned when it comes to food available at the market, because all imported food is controlled for all parameters.
