government
The government begins to check the trade every six months, according to plan
The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection begins conducting inspections of outlets every six months, reports the website of the department, citing the words of its head, Vladimir Lapa.
In connection with the law adopted in the spring, which resumes business inspections by the State Food Safety Service, for which a moratorium has been in effect for several years, the Government has approved the periodicity of planned control over various areas.
«That is, we can already go to inspections, not only responding to consumer complaints but to conduct routine inspections of food market operators,» says Lapa. «I emphasize that the Service does not conduct any „raids“ for checking products. We are doing a systematic work.»
One of the reasons for carrying out an unscheduled inspection of an enterprise may be the instructions of the Prime Minister. Also, the State Food and Consumer Service is obliged to inspect if it received a reasonable consumer complaint.
For example, if a person is faced with counterfeit, he needs to write a complaint. «Surprisingly, it turned out that for some reason it is very difficult to do,» notes Lapa.
Today, falsification is subject to a fine of 5 to 12 minimum wages, and this, according to Lapa, is not a significant amount for a large enterprise. In addition, a fine is imposed only if the counterfeit «is dangerous to the life and health of people.»
The head of the State Food Safety and Consumer Service hopes that in the near future the norm will appear in the Law when 15 minimum wages will have to be paid for the only fact of falsification.
But the main responsibility for the falsification should not even be a fine, says Lapa, but the withdrawal of products from the market and the need for its remarking, which would bring much greater losses to the manufacturer.
In this case, the promulgation of the names of producers is necessary, image losses are no less important than the penalty of a fine. And if the fake is also harmful to life and health, the inspector may suspend the operation of the enterprise for 10 days before the trial.
As we reported, the State Food and Consumer Service promised to conduct in Kiev mass inspections of all food products for compliance with safety parameters. The inspectors plan to visit more than 400 objects, take samples and send them to the laboratories for research.