Easter 2024: DSVSA checks in Alba, to prevent toxic infections. Covered establishments and special conditions for food

Easter 2024: DSVSA controls in Alba, to prevent food poisoning. The Veterinary Sanitary and Food Safety Directorate (DSVSA) Alba started, from the beginning of March, controls in view of the period leading up to the Easter holidays.

The main goal of these actions is to prevent food poisoning during holidays for all religious communities, the institution announced.

The checks will continue throughout April, with the aim of ensuring a civilized trade in food and during the Easter 2024 holidays.

DSVSA Alba inspectors control how the conditions of storage, handling and marketing of food are respected.

Controls in Alba, on Easter: the targeted units

The controls continue to monitor compliance with veterinary sanitary conditions and food safety in:

• all agri-food markets,
• slaughterhouses and slaughter centers with temporary activity,
• meat cutting units,
• animal food processing and storage units,
• retail units (grocers, butchers, public catering units, pizzerias, canteens, catering units, confectioneries, patisseries, confectionery/pastry laboratories, tourist hostels, hypermarket/supermarket units, grocery stores, etc.).

Actions and fines for Roman – Catholic Easter

Similar actions were also organized in the run-up to the Roman Catholic Easter.

The inspectors then carried out 233 control actions, as a result of which 36 contraventional sanctions were applied in the total amount of 76,800 lei, as well as 4 written warnings.

The main non-conformities detected:

• non-compliance with the rules established by the Veterinary Sanitary and Food Safety Authority regarding the maintenance of food processing, storage and utilization spaces, as well as the installations, machines and work utensils used;
• improper packaging and labeling of food products, for the purpose of storage, transport and utilization, and their sale without labeling according to the legislation in force;
• handling of food products in violation of veterinary sanitary and food safety rules;
• violation of veterinary sanitary and food safety rules regarding the demonstration of product traceability in the production, processing, distribution, marketing or sale of food;
• structural deficiencies;
• improper storage of food products (packaged food products stored in boxes directly on the pavements).

“We advise all consumers to purchase products only from authorized and registered sanitary-veterinary and food safety premises because they are subject to specialist checks and present a guarantee for consumers.

Those who buy products, preparations and different foods from individuals, who sell them on classifieds sites or on social networks, expose themselves to an imminent risk of illness and do so at their own risk.

Thus, in order to avoid possible episodes of food poisoning, we recommend purchasing traditional products, cakes, cakes, appetisers and lamb dishes, etc., only from registered establishments, not from unauthorized individuals.

Individuals or legal entities, who sell food products in unapproved sanitary-veterinary and food safety premises, risk high contraventional sanctions.

The controls are carried out because we want the public catering units and operators in the food industry to respect the sanitary and veterinary conditions, the hygienic conditions in which the food products are produced, stored, transported and utilized, and that there should be no food poisoning during this period” they transmitted DSVSA representatives.

Easter 2024: DSVSA controls in Alba. What traders should be aware of

Operators in the food sector in retail units of animal and non-animal products must ensure that the products obtained and sold to the final consumer do not pose a risk to public health and that all the conditions established by the legislation in force regarding:

• labeling; ensuring traceability;
• quality and safety parameters of raw materials and finished products;
• water potability control;
• staff training;
• health control;
• elimination of pests (insects, rodents, birds, etc.);
• waste disposal;
• maintenance and hygiene of spaces and equipment;
• the application of good hygiene practices procedures, based on the principles of food safety established by the guidelines of good practices in the case of agricultural producers raising animals or, as the case may be, the principles of the Risk Analysis and Identification of Critical Control Points (HACCP) system, taking into account see the type of unit, the production capacity and the specifics of the unit.

Special attention will be given to lamb, eggs and egg products, milk and milk products, respectively other traditional products that are consumed during the Easter holidays.

Easter 2024: DSVSA controls in Alba. Special conditions for lamb, eggs and milk products

Control actions will take into account how the following requirements are met:

For the lamb:

• batches of lamb meat are delivered from slaughterhouses and are accompanied by a sanitary-veterinary certificate;
• lamb meat resulting from slaughtering in temporarily arranged spaces (if applicable) is obtained only at the direct request of consumers and only after the ante and post mortem examination has been carried out, and cannot be delivered, with a view to commercialization, to other units in the food sector , registered/sanitarily authorized;
• the marking of lamb carcasses is carried out in compliance with the legal provisions, regarding the marking and sanitary-veterinary certification of fresh meat and the marking of products of animal origin intended for human consumption;
• the marking of lamb meat, resulting from slaughtering in temporarily arranged spaces, is carried out with a special health mark of a round shape with a diameter of 3.5 cm, inside which the code of the county is written, followed by the numerical code granted by DSVSA Alba
• the storage and sale of lamb meat must be carried out in appropriate spaces, ensuring the appropriate temperature and hygiene;
• compliance with temperatures during transport for refrigerated or frozen lamb meat.

For eggs and egg products intended for human consumption:

• producers and traders who use eggs for human consumption, producing farms and egg packing centers must be sanitary-veterinary authorized/registered, according to the sanitary-veterinary legislation in force;
• eggs must be transported only in sanitary-veterinary authorized vehicles, and during the entire period of storage and marketing, the appropriate temperature and hygiene must be ensured;
• the eggs must be marked with the producer’s code and come from authorized egg packing centers, in accordance with the provisions regarding the marketing standards applicable to eggs;
• it is prohibited to sell eggs with cracked and/or damaged shells, they will be withdrawn from sale and, subsequently, sent to a neutralization or technical processing unit;

For milk and milk products:

• small producers, who sell milk and cheeses in agro-food markets and fairs, must be sanitary-veterinary registered, according to the provisions of ANSVSA Order no. 111/2008;
• raw milk, which is intended for direct sale or processing into cheeses, must come from healthy animals, raised in authorized/veterinarily registered farms/holdings and free from diseases that can be transmitted to humans through milk and products dairy products;
• small producers, who directly sell raw milk and milk products to the final consumer in agro-food markets and fairs, must have health cards for the animals from which the milk comes, according to the above-mentioned Order;
• cheeses intended for commercialization by small producers must be displayed for sale in specially designed spaces in agro-food markets and fairs, in showcases intended for this purpose, in containers (trays) made of non-corroding materials, easy to clean and sanitize (plastic, ceramic, stainless steel, etc.) ;
• the cheeses must be properly protected against contamination during transport and exposure for sale to the final consumer (for example: in plastic containers, plastic bags, etc.);
• if the transport and storage of cheeses, with a view to direct sale to the final consumer, is carried out in traditionally made wooden containers (little ones), they must be clean and properly identified, to ensure the traceability of the products and prevent contamination;
• the marketing of cheeses in agro-food markets and fairs will be done only in appropriate, disposable packaging (food plastic bags, food waxed paper, etc.), or other types of properly cleaned and sanitized containers;
• the traceability of milk and cheeses obtained by small producers must be ensured, by using identification/labeling methods, which contain mentions of the name of the product, the name of the producer, the place of production, the date of production, such as:
• applying adhesive labels to the transport or unpacking packaging;
• the use of printed bags;
• the display, at the time of exposure for sale and throughout the commercialization period, of some information written on tablets and/or panels applied above or next to the presented product, etc.

Other traditional food products: muffins, cakes, bakery products, seasonal vegetables, etc. they can be marketed in facilities arranged and registered or authorized sanitary-veterinary, under the control of the specialist staff of DSVSA Alba.