Some Dutch companies import refrigerated meat, freeze it again, change its expiration date and sell it in Romania

The head of ANPC, Horia Constantinescu, talks about a practice of some Dutch companies to import refrigerated products from South America and then freeze them, changing their validity date and selling them on the Romanian market.

ANPC shows, in a press release quoted by News.ro, that, following the verification actions carried out by the Regional Commissioner for Consumer Protection Bucharest-Ilfov Region (CRPCR) at the public catering units in the Piaţa Alba Iulia commercial area in sector 3 of the Capital (Bd. Decebal and Bd. Basarabia), control was extended to their suppliers. More precisely, they started from the checks carried out at SC Arogant SRL (Restaurant “Arogant”), where deficiencies were found in the packaged meat products with which the unit was supplied.

“I think some of the European regulations are not translated into Dutch. I am surprised by this fact, because, not a few times, Holland brought us to the blackboard to explain to us how it is with Europe, what we have to respect and, listening to us, like at school, they left us . It is interesting that the so-called teachers seem repetitive in the important subjects related to the safety of consumers, their life and health. I don’t know if what certain Dutch economic operators are doing is an accepted way of working for the market in their country”says Horia Constantinescu, ANPC president.

He claims that Regulation 853/2004 regarding the sale of meat or fish products is violated.

“Probably, thousands of tons of products from South America are purchased by these companies, in the fresh version, in the sense of refrigerated, not frozen, they are transported to the Netherlands and frozen there, a few months after they are put on the market, in the country of origin – slowly frozen, considering the accumulations of blood, liquid and ice inside the packaging, as well as the obvious freezer burns – and then sold on the Romanian market, although this, I repeat, is strictly prohibited by the normative acts European. Moreover, they issue documents and extend the term of minimum durability or expiration, as it is popularly said, by another year, at least”the ANPC chief pointed out.

The controlled suppliers were: SC Oceanis Seafood Europa SRL – Popeşti Leordeni warehouse and SC Rompex Distribution SRL – Cosoba village warehouse, Cosoba commune, Giurgiu county.

Following the action, they were definitively stopped from being sold and withdrawn from the human consumption circuit 2.8 tons of meat, and the verification of the documents of the two companies will continue in the coming days. The products withdrawn from the market were sealed, until the control document was completed, to be handed over to a neutralization company.

Commissioners CRPCR Bucharest-Ilfov found that at the warehouse located in Giurgiu county, the economic operator’s employees present in the unit they refusedat the beginning, the access to the perimeter of the activity of the control bodies, some of the products had the label applied on which the minimum durability date was exceeded, the product being refrigerated, for the same products, the label applied on the box mentioned the extension of the initial consumption limit date and the change in temperature in the frozen product, the storage door and the cold curtain had considerable amounts of excess ice and mechanical shock marks on the outside of the storage door.

At the same time, another part of the products, imported from South America, wore a double labeling similar: that of the manufacturer, which mentioned the refrigerated product, with a certain minimum durability date and that of the distributor, for a frozen product, with a different expiration date (the discrepancy refers to the information related to production, packaging and expiration date in the sense that the distributor does not comply with the recommendations, storage/storage and consumption conditions assigned by the manufacturer).