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Salmonella meat scandal/Resuli: Criminal act that should be investigated by SPAK

2025-03-28 20:04:00, Aktualitet CNA

The President of the Veterinary Order, Ervin Resuli, has reacted to the scandal published today of chicken meat contaminated with salmonella.

In a reaction on social media, Resuli says that he says it is not simply an act of negligence, but a criminal act that deserves an in-depth investigation by SPAK.

Resuli accuses the Ministry of Agriculture of covering up this scandal, as it is not the first time that there have been such cases for certain products that are put on the market.

Resuli adds that the AKU has once again shown its incompetence and total indifference and is a direct threat to the lives of citizens, therefore someone must be held responsible.

"The Ministry of Agriculture is hiding the scandal!"

Tangerines with pesticides, fish (açüket) with parasites and recently chicken with Salmonella Typhimurium! This is the reality where the lives of Albanians are worth less than the interests of some incompetent, captured institutions that have spectacularly failed in their mission. Since October until today, a series of scandals have erupted, exposing the bitter truth: institutions are not capable of diagnosing in time, do not take measures and when faced with clear evidence, they hide the cases!

27 tons of chicken fillets from Brazil entered Albania on 11.03.2025. AKU took the samples at customs, but for an analysis that should have taken a maximum of 72 hours, it took 10 days. And in the meantime, the product was distributed on the market, sold and consumed by citizens in supermarkets, restaurants and fast food. The ISUV laboratory, under the Ministry of Agriculture, published the response on 21.03.2025, confirming a high Salmonella load outside the permitted norms. But the AKU did not take any immediate measures to withdraw the product from the market, nor did it notify the citizens. Only after the scandal was published by investigative media such as "Piranja", did some reaction begin, but so far no one has indicated which company put this contaminated meat on the market!

ISUV has become a failed institution, which has lost all effectiveness for the purpose for which it was created. Instead of being a scientific reference entity for state and private laboratories, it has become a tendering structure, where the cost of analysis for samples exceeds the values ????of the private sector! In fact, the Supreme Audit Office has opened an investigation into the abuses of this institution, which instead of serving the food security of citizens, has turned into a bureaucratic machine that delays results and justifies the incompetence of the Ministry of Agriculture.

On the other hand, the AKU has once again shown its total incompetence and indifference. For 10 days, this institution allowed infected chickens to end up on the market and only when the scandal became public, they started moving. Instead of acting urgently, the AKU was content with a notification to the prosecutor's office, when in the meantime the Prosecutor's Office should have taken the directors of the AKU and ISUV as defendants, because there is a direct responsibility here! Instead of a professional institution that should protect the health of citizens, the AKU has turned into a "driving school for directors", where appointments are made for political reasons and not for meritocracy. Instead of guaranteeing food safety, this institution has turned into a mechanism that serves only the interests of the minister and not for the lives of citizens.

The concealment of the case by the Ministry of Agriculture, AKU and ISUV leaves strong doubts that the business has been given time to sell the product and to poison the citizens with full knowledge. This is no longer a case of negligence, but a criminal act, which requires an in-depth investigation by SPAK, from A to Z! How many other cases have been concealed? How many times have Albanian citizens become experimental guinea pigs of a rotten system that does not control either the food that is imported or that which is produced domestically?

This is not just a scandal, it is a direct threat to the lives of citizens and someone must be held accountable! This state cannot continue to remain silent while the people are fed with infected meat, fish with parasites and fruits and vegetables overfilled with pesticides! It is time for justice to act and punish those responsible for this catastrophe! SPAK must urgently launch investigations, because this is a crime against Albanian citizens,” Resuli writes. /CNA