Label of disgrace

The results of the food safety inspections carried out before Easter show that all members of the food supply chain made an effort to comply with the law. Everybody ended up happier than before. Looking at the findings of the one month inspection campaign, we can see that only 25 tons of food was found to be unsafe, which is a minimal quantity compared to the nine million tons of food consumed annually. The quantity confiscated this year was only a tenth of last year’s quantity, while the total of fines imposed was also only HUF 24 million. Of course, there were smaller cases, like that of an illegal meat processing plant in Érd, or four tons of meat with forged labels in a family house in Tápiószele. Almost five thousand inspections were carried out by the Public Health Office (ÁNTSZ) during the three weeks preceding Easter and fines totalling HUF 118 million were imposed in one and a half thousand cases. The majority of cases were related to expired products. These two inspection campaigns were carried out separately by the Public Health Office and the Animal Health Service, but an integrated supervisory organisation will be established in the second half of the year to perform inspections in all parts of the food supply chain. This new authority will have the competence to monitor and check on everything related to food safety. . Sanctions for breaking the rules will also get tougher and it will no longer be easy to evade liability by getting rid of compromised businesses. There is also a suggestion that stores where illegal practices have been uncovered, should be fitted with official labels of disgrace.