Oslobođenje: On the basis of collected findings and their comparison with the findings from other countries, analytical percentage shows that in BiH we eat almost the same food as in the EU countries, has been said yesterday by director of the Food Safety Agency of BiH, Sejad Mačkić. He has added that on the basis of monitoring of around 4.900 products, it has come to the results, by which we can be satisfied. Mačkić has said this at the workshop on the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), which has been held yesterday in Sarajevo in organization of the Food Safety Agency in BiH and the Technical Assistance Information Exchange Unit of the European Commission (TAIEX).
Food monitoring
He has said that in the past years a good cooperation with the RASFF has been established, through which the Agency receives the notification on food, which represents the potential risk for health of consumers, while BiH experts can timely react to such warnings. By this system, our country has been warned on dangerous products several times, it has been reacted to it and problematic products have been withdrawn. Mačkić has explained that it is not only about the early warning system, but also about the system, by which it is possible to monitor moving of food, especially the suspicious kind of food.
"It is known that in 2008 there were such notifications and we have reacted on time, we have notified the competent inspectorates of both entities and the Government of the Brčko District, who have quickly undertaken required measures. The European Commission has been notified on this by the Food Safety Agency, and it has graded our work positively", Mačkić has said, by adding that it is about different products from different countries. In the work of this workshop the domestic and foreign experts from Austria, Italy, Denmark and Ireland have participated, as well as the representatives of entity, cantonal and municipal inspectorates. The director of the Food Safety Agency of BiH has said that the workshop has been organized with the support of the European Commission.
Joint objective
By looking back at the previous work of our Agency, representative of the Food Safety Agency from Ireland, Raymond Ellard has said that there were certain obstacles by applying the early warning system, but in all problematic situations the members of the BiH Agency have been reacting very appropriately.
"Our joint objective is protection of consumers and this is why such workshops are useful in exchanging experiences and it jointly works on professional development", Ellard has said.
To the question where the dangerous products mostly come from, Ellard has said that they could come from any country, and from any company regardless of its size.
"We cannot predict where the certain dangerous product can show up, and this is why we have established the RASFF, by which we receive the notifications on such products", Ellard has said.