Both agri-food industry sources and consumers allay fears and agree: Checks at Spanish ports follow established protocols that “work”.
Especially when it comes to allowing certain foods to pass through because they don’t have their own rights, especially compared to other parts of Europe, especially the Nordic countries, which are “more permissive” according to sources in the agricultural sector. They produce these foods and products themselves, and no matter what, they need to export them from other parts of the world.
In this sense, sources consulted by Asaja-Sevilla “are a part of the main Port authority common throughout Europe“In order to have greater control over everything entering the EU”.
In any case, the same sources evaluated this situation positively. control mechanisms In Spanish ports such as Algeciras, “a sample of the items in each container is examined.”
Another issue is the issue of food entering the country, even though it does not directly harm health, as the case of hepatitis A found in strawberries in Morocco might imply (an issue that has attracted public attention this week). Failure to comply with the use of phytosanitary products banned in Europe.
In fact, the creation of mirror provisions is one of the biggest complaints of the sector, which has been demonstrating for more than a month against bureaucratic obstacles, the flexibility of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or the different measures implemented by Brussels. Paralysis of agreements with Mercosur and New Zealand and greater controls on imports, especially from Morocco.
Rubén Sánchez, secretary general of Facua-Consumidores en Acción, explained to El Correo de Andalucía from the same editorial group: two types of port control, visual and laboratory performed. “For example, we are concerned that the idea that all strawberries in Morocco contain hepatitis A will become widespread: this is not the case at all, because the checks are carried out according to established protocols that work,” he said. In this case, the importer is from Huelva and the distributor is from Seville, but it is not put on the market.
In this sense, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (Aesan) was requested to “go beyond forwarding such situations to the community rapid alert portal (Rasff) and publish data on issues such as the company behind the imports.” the quantity of this batch of strawberries or the specific geographical origin of the agricultural enterprise from which they came, because Maybe it’s just one plantation affected.But we need to know this.”
For this reason, Sánchez stated that he regretted the “lack of information” regarding the health warnings on the Aesan portal and reminded that although this strawberry case attracted special attention from the public, “there are many cases in those reaching sales points in Turkey.” Supermarkets”.
Aesan, who is an advisor to El Correo de Andalucía, assured that “on Monday, March 4, he received a notification from the General Directorate of Foreign Health under the Ministry of Health regarding the existence of the Hepatitis virus.” “In an analysis of a batch of strawberries destined to be sent from Morocco to Andalusia.”
From this moment on, AESAN, as stated, protocol in these casesOn March 4, the competent authority immediately warned the Andalusian Junta, assuring them that all information obtained from the analysis would be made available to the Junta so that it could make the decisions it deemed appropriate. resources.