The inspections carried out by the veterinary and food safety inspectors in the non-animal origin food sector targeted operators in the food industry, operating in areas such as milling, bread, and pastry production, other food products, soft and alcoholic beverages.

During the month of March 2023, the county Veterinary and Food Safety Directorates, as well as the one in Bucharest, conducted 11,685 inspections in units of the agri-food industry.

As a result of the identified irregularities and violations of food safety legislation, 233 administrative sanctions were applied, totaling 1,401,040 lei.

The national verification and control program for 2023 aimed to address aspects related to compliance by food operators with registration, authorization, and functioning conditions of units, maintenance and hygiene of spaces where food products are handled, processing and storage conditions for raw materials and finished products, traceability requirements, labeling, pest control, documentation, and information regarding the implementation of risk analysis procedures (HACCP system).

The inspections conducted by ANSVSA inspectors primarily focus on prevention and counseling for operators in the food industry. Administrative sanctions are applied when the initially identified deficiencies have not been remedied within the established time frame or when they endanger consumers' health.

As a result of the inspections, a series of irregularities were identified, including:

• Non-compliance with good hygiene and manufacturing practices, such as poor hygiene maintenance of storage spaces, inadequate maintenance of technological production areas, lack of changing rooms and sanitary facilities for employees, inadequate provision of substances for disinfection operations, failure to carry out operations of Disinfection, Disinsection, and Deratization (DDD) in accordance with specific food domain legislation.
• Non-compliance with the maintenance and hygiene of the sanitation protection equipment of the workforce.
• Non-compliance with monitoring and implementation of procedures based on HACCP principles.
• Non-compliance related to ensuring the traceability and conformity of food products (labeling, analysis bulletins with unsatisfactory results, inadequate packaging, food products with organoleptic changes).
• Non-compliance related to workforce personnel (lack of aptitude records, failure to attend hygiene courses, failure to attest to the health status of personnel).
• Other types of non-compliance such as carrying out unregistered sanitary-veterinary and food safety activities, non-compliance with requirements for importing food products, failure to initiate product recall procedures, failure to withdraw non-compliant products from shelves, transportation of food with unregistered sanitary-veterinary and food safety means.

During the inspections carried out in units of the agri-food industry, samples were taken for laboratory analysis, following the procedures and instructions in the Surveillance and Control Program, aiming to verify the conformity of food products, their quality within the permitted limits, and the presence of pesticide residues, contaminants, and other substances prohibited in food.