Hungary orders comprehensive analysis of 100 food products
Staff Writer |
The Ministry of Agriculture’s Minister of State for Food Chain Supervision Róbert Zsigó announced that Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas has ordered another comprehensive analysis of similar products available in both Hungarian and foreign retail stores.
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The National Food Chain Safety Office (NFCSO) has already begun the task.
“Assuring public access to good quality foods is of key importance to the Government, the Ministry and the NFCSO. Several measures have been introduced to this end in recent years; public awareness and information programme shave been launched.
“The primary goal of the drawing up and regular expansion of the Hungarian Food Book (Codex Alimentarius) is also to protect our traditions and guarantee the high quality of our foods.
“It is also in this spirit that the regulations on meat products, bread and other bakery products have been made stricter recentlyâ€, Mr. Zsigó explained.
The “Supermenta†programme launched by the NFCSO a year ago serves to increase public awareness and to provide information to the population. Within the framework of the programme, experts from the Office perform the sensory, laboratory and preference testing of various product groups every month.
“For the past few months the Ministry has been developing documentation on increasing the quality of foods and developing consumer awareness, which will soon be put before the Cabinetâ€, the Minister of State said.
Previous tests by the NFCSO received renewed publicity in recent days. Staff from the Office purchased 24 different foods of the same brand in the shops of retail chains operating in both Hungary and Austria.
During the course of the investigation, it transpired that in most cases there are differences in both quality and content.
The Government indicated this problem in 2015 and voted in favour of joint action on the issue at the V4 summit in April 2016. ■