According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unhealthy food can contain harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemicals that can cause more than 200 different diseases, from diarrhea to cancer. In April of this year, the Food Safety Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was informed that, during border controls during import into the Republic of Croatia, non-compliance of chips originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina with the current regulations was determined. Alkamide was detected in chips. It has been announced that it is a question of chips with the taste of dry beef. Acrylamide is a chemical compound that can be formed at elevated temperatures in food rich in starch from its natural ingredients – reducing sugars and amino acids. The initial risk assessment carried out by the Food Safety Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina found that the obtained values point to concerns about neoplastic effects and that the risk of consuming the product in question cannot be ruled out, it says. Večernji list BiH.
Two shipments of pears that were returned to BiH from the Croatian border at the end of February this year ended up on the tables of citizens. And few would talk about it as a first-class health problem if the elevated presence of an illegal substance – phosmet – was not found in those pears. The seized fruit represented a potential risk to human health, and the proportion of phosmet in pears was 0.18 mg per kg. The insecticide phosmet was banned in the EU in February 2022 by decision of the European Commission. Genotoxicity and carcinogenicity are suspected, i.e. harmful effects on human health, and the question arises as to how healthy the food eaten by the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina is actually. On that occasion, the director of the BiH Food Safety Agency, Sanin Tanković, referred to the devastating practice according to which goods that do not meet the standards of the European Union often end up on the BiH market. He emphasized that the pears that reached domestic consumers contained a concentration of phosmet up to a hundred times higher than the permitted limit. As one of the biggest problems in BiH, Tanković highlighted the inconsistency of domestic regulations with European ones, where BiH is open to the import of products that do not meet the criteria of the EU market.
Last month, a shipment of frozen chicken was returned from the border of the Republic of Croatia, due to the determined presence of the Salmonella Mbandaka bacteria. The Food Safety Agency of BiH announced this case. As they stated, the Agency, as the contact point of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Animal Feed (EU RASFF), was informed two days ago about the rejection of a shipment of frozen chicken breasts from Bosnia and Herzegovina at the border with the Republic of Croatia due to the presence of Salmonella Mbandaka bacteria. – According to the currently available information, the return of the shipment that was rejected from the border of the Republic of Croatia was made and it was placed under the supervision of the competent veterinary inspection, and the circulation of the said shipment, as well as any form of treatment with it, was prohibited until a final decision was made
Necessary alignment
If the official controls confirm that the shipment is harmful to human health, it will be under official supervision until it is destroyed or another appropriate measure is implemented – the Food Safety Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina stated the further procedure in this case. When it comes to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. market, according to official data collected for the purpose of risk assessment and based on the results of analyzes of food samples taken for the purpose of official controls, the Food Safety Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina told Fena that in this year, as well as in the previous year, there were no significant deviations in the results of laboratory analyzes of food compared to the multi-year average. Although the information available to the BiH Food Safety Agency through the exchange of experiences with relevant food safety institutions from our region and numerous other countries does not point to significant differences in terms of food safety, the Agency warns that there is an evident delay in the process of harmonizing regulations in BiH with EU legislation.
If this practice continues, there is a possibility of increasing the risk to consumer health and trade obstacles, primarily due to the non-compliance of the maximum permissible levels of pesticide residues and the maximum permissible concentration of contaminants in food with the legal acquis of the EU, about which the leaders of the Food Safety Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina have repeatedly warned decision makers and competent institutions. The Agency for Food Safety of BiH monitors changes in EU legislation every day and includes them in draft regulations so that, after overcoming the above-mentioned deadlock, they can be sent to the Council of Ministers of BiH for adoption, the agency said.
