Answer:

According to decree no. 178/2002/EK, and Hungarian legislation about food, all members of the supply chain (producer, processor, retailer) bear responsibility for the products they buy and sell. All participants in the supply process are required to have systems which allow monitoring the route of the product from the fields to the consumers’ table. There are no exceptions to this rule.
According to Hungarian law, all business ventures are obliged to check whether their business partners operate legally, or not. Large scale, regular manipulation should not occur.
Big domestic retail chains are aware of these regulations and compel their suppliers to operate quality assurance and monitoring systems. Domestic food producers pay many tens of millions annually to quality assurance institutes. Food scandals are practically always related to imported products. Retailers sometimes buy products from other trade ventures which might not necessarily have the required quality assurance systems. The fact is, that some of the retail chains have a different set of requirements for domestic producers and for importers. This is the source of the problem.
Domestic suppliers operate systems which guarantee appropriate quality and which can recall products automatically in the very rare case when a problem occurs. Imports via wholesalers mean higher risk, therefore we recommend reliable domestic producers, even if this means paying a higher price. We would be happy to share our experience in operating quality assurance and monitoring systems with retailers. A system for the quick transfer of information about any tricks detected by our members would also be useful. What is essential is to have a well proven control system and operate it strictly and consistently, without allowing any exceptions. If this is achieved, tricks will no longer be possible.