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14:51 POLITICS

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Food safety/Muçollari buffet AKU and the Ministry of Agriculture

2024-12-25 11:49:00, Aktualitet CNA

Food safety/Muçollari buffet AKU and the Ministry of Agriculture

Member of the Presidency of the DP Grigels Muçollari

The member of the Presidency of the DP Grigels Muçollari spoke about food safety and the recent case with mandarins with pesticides.

Muçollari emphasized that all the institutions that are responsible for food safety, the Ministry of Agriculture, AKU or even other institutions do not exist in this aspect.

He said that these institutions sacrifice a lot in their duties.

Muçollari underlines that AKU has a legal obligation to communicate the risk of products that Albanian citizens should not consume. According to Muçllari, AKU does not have any certified laboratory that can process data as quickly as possible and assist farmers.

On the other hand, Muçollari declares that the Ministry of Agriculture neither controls, nor subsidizes, nor gives help to farmers to make the best possible products.

"We are dealing with a problem that is not only related to a shipment of tangerines. Not even with one, two, three, or four cases which may be imported products with problems. But we are dealing with a whole system that does not work. I have been trying for a year to monitor all the institutions that are responsible for food safety, the Ministry of Agriculture, AKU or even other institutions, and I see that these institutions do not exist in this aspect. There is definitely a higher approach in these last months, in the second half of the year, to be more active in public relations, but this after our denunciations. But they still give way too much in their task performance functions. During this year, there are dozens and dozens of cases related to our products which return to the borders of the European Union, for the content of pesticides or illegal substances.

The tangerine case is one that received a lot of publicity, or a little more coverage. But the cases are endless. The cases that I reported belonged only to the period of November - December, which were cases where products with harmful elements were caught by the EU system. It's not like we caught them. We have the institutions to catch such cases and record them and then block them. But even in cases where we are notified by the partner structures, we still give more reaction in the implementation of the law and in the communication of the risk, AKU has a legal obligation to communicate the risk for products that Albanian citizens should not consume. This is a system that connects to a whole system. If you notice and look at this year's budget from the government, there is no additional budget. AKU, to my knowledge, does not have any certified laboratory to process data as quickly as possible and assist farmers.

Farmers need help, assistance, subsidy. Especially those who produce very good food products. At no time, the Ministry of Agriculture is completely disconnected from this chain. It neither controls them, nor subsidizes them, nor does it help them make better products. Which means we have to be very careful about what we eat. And that is not enough. Often times, some products that we take for granted, as was the case with mandarins, turn out to contain pesticides already banned in the European Union", said Muçollari./ CNA