Food safety is one of the major topics in Croatia in recent days.

Croatian Member of European Parliament Marijana Petir asked the European Commission to explain its activities with regards to the issue of reinforcing meat control measures and improving existing EU legislation relating to the control of salmonella, given the frequent detection of the bacteria in meat imported from other EU member states, reports Večernji List on November 23, 2016.

Petir stressed that the scandal surrounding the infection with salmonella was still in the focus of Croatian public, considering that just over a month ago a five-year-old boy died of poisoning with eggs contaminated by salmonella, which were imported from Poland. “In the last few days, the same bacteria has been found in imported meat in several supermarket chains – in chicken breasts imported from Poland, in duck breasts imported from Hungary, in chicken thighs produced in Poland, and in turkey burgers with rosemary imported from Italy”, said the MEP.

She noted that the majority of food products infected with salmonella on the shelves of Croatian stores came from other EU member states. She wanted to know whether the European Commission would expand existing provisions for meat labeling and give consumers full information about the production cycle.

She is particularly concerned with the fact that consumers were not informed about the presence of salmonella in the products, which were then withdrawn from the shelves of retail chains. “Meat which is dangerous to health, as well as meat which does not comply with the declaration and the declared quality, should not be on store shelves”, said Petir. She pointed out that retailers must immediately inform consumers as soon as they pull a product from the market in accordance with EU regulations, and public authorities are also obliged to inform the public because there is a reasonable suspicion that the food could pose a risk to human health.

She called on the Ministry of Agriculture to promptly propose the law on combating unfair commercial practices in the food supply chain, which is under consideration. “I think that with the controls and penalties, the Ministry of Agriculture and other competent authorities should make Croatian market unattractive for ‘waste’ from other EU member states and third countries”, concluded MEP Marijana Petir.