In Latvia, the Food and Veterinary Service (PVD) has conducted over 400 inspections across various food outlets, including shops, market stalls, street stalls, and wholesalers, as part of its ongoing effort to monitor the fresh fruit, vegetables, and berries trade. The inspections aimed at ensuring the traceability of fresh produce, scrutinizing accompanying documents and labeling for information such as the country of origin and other consumer information, as well as assessing the quality and storage conditions of the produce.
Findings from these inspections revealed that 36% of the cases had various infringements. Specifically, in 11% of the inspections, there was misleading or absent information regarding the origin of the products. In 10% of the cases, the country of origin presented to consumers differed from that in the accompanying documents. Furthermore, 8% of cases lacked any indication of the country of origin in the accompanying documents. Quality concerns were identified in 11% of the inspections, where products including cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, aubergines, mandarins, bananas, and pears were found to be sub-standard.
Additionally, 2% of the inspections uncovered inadequate storage conditions, and 4% found issues with product labeling. The PVD also discovered four instances of unregistered food activities and issued thirty recall notices for the detected infringements, leading to the withdrawal of over 700 kilograms and 88 pieces of spoiled produce. In 16 cases, fines and penalties were imposed.
Source: eng.lsm.lv