The National Food Chain Safety Strategy doesn’t only protect the consumer

After a long preparation period the Ministry of Rural Development and the National Food Chain Safety Office (NÉBIH) concluded work on the National Food Chain Safety Strategy. The framework programme for medium term was accepted early October, it is valid for the 2013-2022 period and the ministry introduced it at an international conference in the middle of October. At the plenary session Lajos Bognár, deputy secretary of state in the Ministry of Rural Development and Ákos Józwiak, deputy director of the NÉBIH gave a joint presentation to explain the national strategy. Mr Bognár highlighted the importance of information and a standardised and effective control system in the knowledge of half of the groceries leaving the country of production. The deputy secretary of state told that despite Hungary having good and efficient regulation each year there are about 3 million food safety issues with negative health effects. Mr Jozwiak introduced the strategy in detail, telling that the 11 packages of measures aid the implementation of the strategy, from uniform information management to reorganising the laboratory system to fighting frauds. After the plenary work continued in four sections, of which ‘Illegal-legal: food chain safety control’ attracted the biggest attention. Ferenc Helik, the head of NÉBIH’s special cases directorate told that VAT frauds in the food sector steal HUF 128 billion a year from the national budget. Gábor Horváth, deputy head of department in the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) spoke about how they select the companies for inspection