EU Influenced Food Inspectors Out For Profits In Bulgaria

This had to come to Bulgaria at some point as I see on a day-to-day basis the casual way that food is stored handled and prepared for public diners. To be fair in all the time I have eaten in Bulgaria I have only had one bout of food poisoning and that was from a Chinese restaurant not Bulgarian. I believe that a getting used to a little bacteria in your food is good for your own defences against them and that eating only sterile leads to problem down the line. If the hygiene practiced were to be surveyed in the villages the food inspectors would have a field day but they are perfectly healthy with no problem. EU interfering again with food that has been perfectly fine up until now without mandatory rules and regulations that will strangle many businesses. Sounds also like another money-making business for the government.

The Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s office has ordered Bulgaria’s state health inspectors to start a nationwide check-up of eating establishments after an increase in incidents of food poisoning, Bulgarian news agency Focus said on July 20 2009.

Inspectors will check whether safety requirements for the production and sale of food are being met.

Bulgaria joined the European Union on January 1 2007 and is meant to comply with EU food handling directives. However, at some small food businesses in Sofia and elsewhere, the sight of food being handled without gloves or head coverings continues to be common sight.

Roumyana Yordanova, head of the unit in Sofia that checks up on eating establishments, said that in the first half of 2009, a total of 381 270 in fines were imposed.

Yordanova said that the fines were handed out after various places, from restaurants to snack bars and stalls, were checked.

In the past two weeks, the unit headed by Yordanova has carried out more than 1200 inspections at places where food is sold.

Most of the fines in the first half of the year were for failure to keep food refrigerated at proper temperatures, as well as inadequate hygiene of food preparation surfaces and equipment.

Fines for breaches of food preparation requirements range from 500 to 2000 leva in cases where there is no serious risk to health, and where there are serious risks, individuals can be fined up to 3000 leva and legal persons up to 5000 leva.

Source: www.sofiaecho.com